Tropical Zone Gardening: It's the season to be jolly... so there's no... without..., 0 by goofybulb

goofybulb wrote:
Santa Claus grew up with us...

Since I can remember (probably around 3YO) and until about 7, Santa came faithfully to our house. It happened on Christmas Eve. Until evening, we didn't do anything special, except bothering the adults in the house (parents plus a pair of grandparents) with our never-ending question "so when is Santa coming?" It seemed that time would stop moving, that's how long this day of anticipation was for us. When the daylight would start dimming, our strength in shooting the question found new proportions. The door towards the living room would close, and we would be hushed towards our room, to make sure it's clean in there, or else Santa would not come. (Have to admit I was a very meesy disorganized child, so I was lucky my sister was very opposite to me... things changed now). Mom, Dad, Buita and Bubu were somehow in our ray of vision almost continuously. There was not a chance they could be Santa (like some kids in kindergarden and first grade would say)!

We would escape from time to time, pressing our ears to the living room door, and sometimes it would seem we heard a move... but we were told we'd know when he arrived. And when we least expected, somebody would say: Mos Craciun (Santa) is here! Oh, what a rush, who gets first into the living room!...

Santa would come "live" in our living room! He would bring in the tree, too. Still very puzzling: how did he manage to bring in an already decorated tree, with lights? But who cared for this question anymore? We would go to him, sing a song, tell a Christmas poem, and then answer the tough question: were we good? listened to our family? with a peak towards Mom, Dad and Grandparents, we would lower the heads and say... yes! A questioning look towards our folks, their nod, and then...

Then Santa would start taking out of his bag presents for the two of us, and our friends (if they were with us - how did he know?). Grandpa (Bubu) would sing a carol for Santa. Then he would say that he has other kids to go to, wish us all the best wishes, and leave. We didn't mind, as the following hours (that now seemed minutes) we would be very busy!