2 minute read
Interview with Mr. & Mrs. Claus: Coming Back to Marple Newtown Again This Year
by Craig Whitney
It was a cold morning in late November when I was lucky enough to run into Mr. and Mrs. Claus at a local coffee shop in the area.
Santa told me many stories about different children he has been able to speak to over the years, the many great questions he’s been asked. Questions like ‘Where are your reindeer?’ ‘Why is Rudolph’s nose red?’ and ‘do the elves get raises?’
Santa smiled as he recounted the questions and told me the reindeer can only fly on Christmas Eve, and a sleigh would be too loud dragging on the pavement. Rudolph’s nose is a lot like a lightning bug that flashes yellow on summer nights. Elves get free housing, playtime with the reindeer, and always stick to the main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corns, and syrup.
Santa told me one special memory about a child who was too sick to get out of bed on Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve is obviously the busiest and most hectic day of the year for Mr. and Mrs. Claus, but once they heard that the grandson of a friend of theirs, named Jimmy, was so sick that he couldn’t get out of bed, they put their plans on hold and made the trip to Newtown Square to see him. After sitting with him and encouraging him with stories of their own hard Christmas Eve’s Jimmy was bounding down the stairs the next morning with a spark in his eyes.
Those are the kinds of stories Mr. and Mrs. Claus remember with the most fondness. I could hear a lump in Mrs. Claus’ throat as she described the pure joy in Jimmy’s eyes when he bounced down the stairs to talk to his grandmother. There are very busy days in the holiday season, last year Mr. and Mrs. Claus spoke with over 300 children at St. Anastasia’s alone during a breakfast with Santa, but these little moments can be just as beautiful.
“You don’t have to have material things to pass back and forth, they will come and go anyway,” Santa explained. “You only have to give yourself to the ones you love, that’s what will last forever.”
On my way to work that day, I couldn’t help but hum old Christmas songs and smile as I drove. I felt the same as I did when I was a child bounding down the steps on Christmas morning. The gifts and the food may be wonderful, but the true meaning of Christmas is something closer to the spark in Jimmy’s eyes or Santa’s eagerness to offer me a seat when he was on a date with his wife. That brotherly love, the acts of true kindness to our friends and neighbors that we could do every day, is the closest we can get to true Christmas spirit.
Anyone in the Marple Newtown area interested in reaching Santa, can email: santa.southpole.workshop@gmail.com.
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