Treasured Memories

From my Uncle Dan:

This story was found in some papers and pictures from my mother, Margaret Woodson Searing. There were three typewritten versions, some with pen & ink changes. I decided to type a ‘final’ as a remembrance of her work for Christmas, 2009. I believe this story was the basis for one of an occasional column she did after her retirement as Women’s Editor for the Waukegan News-Sun.

It seems to me now that when I was a child Christmas was always a time of beautiful snowfalls.  I remember one special time just when my faith as a true believer was beginning to waver a bit.  I saw Santa in a sleigh pulled by his reindeer.   You probably don’t believe me, but see him I did and the memory is as clear today as the sight of the bearded and bundled up old gentleman was those many years ago.

It was Christmas Eve and we were visiting my grandparents in a small Iowa town.  We had arrived by train in the afternoon.  Trains still ran to little Iowa towns in those days.  We, my sister and I were wild with excitement and anticipation of Santa’s visit.  It had been snowing all day, a wonderful Christmas cottony snow so that everything was covered in fluffy white.  Well bundled up because of the cold I was headed across the unpaved street to my aunt’s home on some long forgotten errand.

I heard the jingle of sleigh bells and I waited to cross.  And there he was!  Santa Claus in a fully packed sleigh pulled by reindeer with sleigh bells jingling merrily away.  

Was I frightened? Awed? Thrilled to my very toes?  Speechless, I watched them go quickly out of sight then dashed back to the house, errand forgotten, and burst in with my big news. 

Everyone laughed and said I must have seen a farmer in a sleigh pulled by horses on their way to Christmas services in the Lutheran Church down the block.  I wasn’t convinced.  I knew what I had seen.

It was so clear to my five year old eyes.  The memory returns every year and has warmed me through many Christmases when I haven’t been as happy as I was on that long ago snowy night.   Is there a moral to my story?  Probably not, but I only wish that everyone could have treasured memories of their childhood.