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Blogs, Christmas, Santa Claus, Static in the Airwaves, Tim L O'Brien, Trying to Catch Santa Claus
“The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The Children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar plums danced in their heads…”
Um, the kids are not nestled snug in their beds. Not on the night before Christmas.
Children from all around the world are huddled in their rooms, planning and plotting as you read this. This year they plan to finally catch jolly ol’ St. Nick in the act of delivering presents under the tree. Past attempts were met with good intentions, but always failed.
You did your best to stay up late into the night, flashlights were hidden under each pillow, listening for the sounds of sleigh bells and reindeer. You waited. The only sounds that came that night were the sounds you heard every night from your parents bedroom down the hall. There was no mistaking the sounds of dad snoring.
By the time you willed your eyes to open it was always too late. With flashlight in hand, you and your siblings crept down the stairs or down the hallway as quietly as you could, trying your best to keep the beam of light in front of you and not pointed at mom and dad’s room. You peered around the corner and spotted the Christmas tree. Your eyes rolled over each and every present. The excitement grew, the anticipation was too much. You moved closer to the tree. You marveled at the brightly colored new presents all wrapped and placed perfectly under the tree. The large box with your name on the tag held your curiosity. But so did the mysterious and elusive Santa Claus. Once again, he got away.
Have you ever wondered how many kids around the world have tried to catch Santa Claus? I bet the number is well into the millions. Over one million attempts and over one million failures.
Not to shabby for an overweight older man.
I remember my own attempts of catching a glimpse of the jolly one. One year I decided to tie a string around my big toe and have the line run into the living room. The other end of the string was fastened to a spot on the wall. Santa would have to walk past the taut line which would then pull and tug at my toe. Didn’t work. At some point in the night, the pain coming from my foot was too much, forcing me to untie the string. My toe had swollen and had begun to turn an unnatural color. Yep, the string was way too tight. Once again, the elusive one remained out of my grasps.
Several days ago while watching television with my children my youngest daughter, aged nine, out of nowhere blurted out to all in the living room, that she knows that Santa Claus is real. No one was discussing Christmas or Santa. I was interested in why her little mind decided that now was the time to make such a proclamation. I asked her how she knows this. With the confidence of a child much older and showing off a pride at her discovery, she explained her logic. “We always leave a big glass of milk out for Santa. Well I know Dad doesn’t like to drink milk. I know Mama K doesn’t like milk either. So it has to be Santa drinking the milk.”
There you have it. The logic of a nine-year old child. Taking such a complex mystery and whittling it down to the most basic element. Who is drinking the milk?
I guess it’s a good thing we don’t leave a can of cold beer or a glass of wine for Santa.
So what clever attempts did you make as a child to catch Santa Claus? Have you caught your kids planning or plotting yet? I would love for you to share any hijinks from your childhood memories. I find it interesting and immensely amusing the way a child’s mind works and to what lengths they will go to capture a glimpse of the most elusive St. Nick.
Part II of Trying to Catch Santa Claus will appear on Thursday. Who knows, maybe a comment or two could work its way into the blog. But I will reveal the one sure-fire, honest-to-goodness way to catch Santa Claus. Stay tuned for this stunning revelation!!
My parents used to lock me inside of my room and not let me out until the next morning after one year when they were up almost all night long because I wouldn’t go to sleep from the excitement of Christmas. They had a latch lock on the outside of the door that I could only crack the door slightly open. Needless to say, there are reasons I turned out the way I did.
For some reason Bill I can come up with 1,000 reason your parents had that latch lock outside your door! And it does explain everything!
Ooh… Can’t wait for your sure fire catching tips! I never tried to catch Santa, for fear I’d lose my gift privileges. 😉 There’s a new phone app that allows us to “track Santa.” Maybe that’ll help the stalkers…
I will check out the tracking Santa phone app. Thanks August!
I remember trying to catch Leprechauns, but I always had a healthy respect for the warning from my parents who said, “Santa won’t come if you are not asleep.” I used to have the opposite problem as I lay awake for what seemed like hours staring at the ceiling. I do remember listening for hooves on the roof and once I swore I heard them! Then my sister reminded me that we lived in an apartment with upstairs neighbors. Oh yah!
Fun post!
Trying to catch Leprechauns? Did you ever see the old Bonanza tv show episode when the leprechauns get Hoss? It remains my all-time favorite Bonanza show. Hilarious.
I thought I heard hooves on the roof one-time but it was my brother in the bed next to me passing gas in his sleep!
I can just see it now Tim, you’re at the beach or a pool when someone looks down and says “Oh wow, how’d you lose your toe?” and you reply “Well, I was trying to catch Santa Claus and….” LOL
Doug, I’m sure you probably had some pretty clever ways to catch Santa back in your day. Glad I never lost the toe, but I might have if I never untied that string.
I can’t remember when I stopped “trying to catch Santa” but I do remember helping out my youngest sister’s belief. She’s nine years younger, and me and my other sister orchestrated a phone call from one of Santa’s elves every year. We called him Dimples the elf. 🙂 So much fun.
A phone call from Santa’s elves is a great idea! I told my children that Santa called the other day to check up on them. They still think St. Nick calls me periodically.
My parents weren’t fans of Santa, but I made it a mission every year to know what I was getting before it ended up under the tree. I went to extreme lengths to sneak into my parents’ bedroom to find the hidden treasures. I figured if I wasn’t going to like what I was getting, I had time to practice my fake joy face. lol
The fake joy smile is a necessity but very hard to master!
you’ve painted a lovely image of Christmas Eve, Tim. and i’m sure you’re right – many, many children have tried to catch Santa. When my kids were little, I made my dad a Santa Suit and he came to my house with something for my kids. usually something he’d made in the shop. and he told the kids to go to bed and sleep well so that he could leave the rest of their toys.
what a hoot. they always went to bed well and slept thru the night. at least I think they did
Sounds like some great times at your house during the holidays!
I always knew Santa wasn’t real…what an annoying daughter you have!
Which daughter are you talking about Katie? You or your youngest sister? You were always too smart for your age as a child and were able to figure things out much sooner than you were supposed to. You were no fun!
I remember when my oldest was on the verge of not believing that Santa existed. So he wouldn’t spoil it for the youngest, I told him that children who didn’t believe in Santa didn’t get gifts from him. He’s now 32 and he still says Santa lives at the North Pole. 🙂
I like the approach Sheila. Nothing better than a good, stern threat – works everytime!
I don’t recall trying to catch Santa. My parents must have had me afraid of not receiving gifts. But I became an expert at unwrapping and rewrapping to the point my mom stopped putting names on the gifts. The best year was when she lost her master list as to which number went to whom and it was a free for all. LOL
I bet that was so funny for your family! I was never very good at the slight unwrap/rewrap thing. Every time I would try it I would tear the paper so bad that it was obvious someone had been snooping. Of course, you couldn’t blame your brother or sister because why then would they want to peek inside your present and not their own!
Funny, I can’t remember the exact year I realized my parents were playing Santa…I think it was more of a slow dawning. There’s this really cool website I found last year that has a video of santa and you can actually put in your child’s name and what they are getting for Christmas and when they watch it, Santa is talking right to them! I have to find that again.