The Spirit of Christmas

A Christmas music box that I found for E, a reminder
of one I had when I was her age.

Each year as Christmas approaches, I think back on what it was like in the 1950's when I was young and anticipating the arrival of S. Claus. Sometimes it is a more pronounced time of pondering depending on what is going on in my life, and other years it is like a jet flying overhead - brief.

I remember only too well hearing from my older brother who was in a bitter state of mind that there is no such thing as Santa Claus. He was pretty proud that he had that information and could take away my joy. Only he never did. (and by the way I have forgiven him...) I still believe in S. Claus, in the possibilities that the Old Man can bring into reality, and for several years when I was living in Boise, Idaho, I absolutely knew Who He Was.

About 1974 or 1975 I was introduced to a really old man with a beard by Phyllis Atwater during one of our Psychic Fairs in Boise.  He went under the name of Arthur Yensen and he lived in Parma, about 30 minutes from Boise. (Art said when we went to visit him at his home in Parma that it was "the summer cottage for Santa.") He was the Karcher Mall Santa Claus for years and years and even wrote a small paperback book about being the 'real' Santa Claus. He refused to give out candy to the children, so the mall had to hire assistants to do it. He once told me, "Candy is not really good for them, and as the real Santa Claus, I cannot advocate it." Yensen was a high school biology teacher and started being a Santa Claus almost by accident. "But I realized," he said, "that the role of this individual in the lives of children cannot be minimized and decided after my first day on the job that I would do it for as long as I could." He took his position very seriously and commented that he never drank because "how would it look in the newspapers for my mall children to read that Santa had been arrested for being drunk and disorderly?"

From 1969, when he was in his early 70's, until 1990, he was on duty in his special red chair from Thanksgiving until the weekend before Christmas. Both my daughters sat on his knee and asked for their dreams to be fulfilled. Neither of them pulled on his real beard, but Art said plenty of other kids did, wondering if he was the 'real deal.' He was... in so many ways, the embodiment of the S. Claus I carry in my heart. If you read about his life on the link, you will see what I mean. To add in a little economic humor about Santa, read this as to the work and earnings of this North Pole entrepreneur.

Last year there was a Santa brave enough to ask the adults
to come and sit on (or at) his knee to share our dreams.

So for those of you who were given the 'truth' about Santa Claus someplace along the way, perhaps you want to revise your belief system and like Peter Pan's Tinkerbell be reminded to keep the dream alive. Yes, there is a Christmas and it is ostensibly about the birth of a baby in a manger, but it is also the time in the Northern Hemisphere when the axis of the earth brings certain astronomical events into focus and who is to say if it is science or history or myth or mystery? Care to share your special Christmas story here? Hope your Christmas is a merry one.