Special gifts from Santa
Carol Monroe
Battle Ground
On Thanksgiving day, we always got a 20-dollar bill from Grandma to purchase our tickets at the Frederick & Nelson department store in Seattle for breakfast with Santa and to have our pictures taken.
The day after Thanksgiving, the kids in our family always made out our Christmas lists and sent them to Santa, with pictures cut out of the Montgomery Ward catalog. Then we’d put up our tree and wait for Christmas Day.
Under the tree would be a big gift for each of us, wrapped with our favor color bow. Inside the box would be a picture of the gift that we would be receiving after Christmas (the same picture that we sent to Santa).
We had little gifts under the tree, but our special gift would be coming via Montgomery Ward about five days after Christmas.
At that time, we didn’t have the privilege of shopping earlier, because all the sales happened after Christmas.
My Mom and Dad told us when we were younger that this was the agreement they had with Santa, and we certainly believed them.
If you think about it, we had two Christmases.
My husband and I have carried this one step further. Each year, we prepare a letter listing 14 things we want to do with each other for the following year. This is our gift from Santa to each other.
Each year we complete what is a wonderful blessing for both of us.
