Growing up, I remember Dad telling about the Christmas when he was in third grade. It was during the Great Depression, and poverty hit the Fred Burns family particularly hard. Christmas Eve came and Dad's younger sister Evelyn begged to put up her stocking. Dad recalled his Mom crying as she remained firm that there would be no stockings hung that year. As he told the story Dad's eyes would fill with tears and his voice would become thick, at the memory and the knowlege as a parent of how hard it must have been for Grandma Cora to have nothing to give her children.
On the first day of school after the holiday break. The teacher asked everyone to stand up and tell what Santa had brought them. Aunt Evelyn stood up and said, "Santa didn't come to our house this year." As a man in his 70's, I recall Dad retelling this story and tears still filled his eyes. He'd always say....."I swore right then and there, when I grew up if I had kids, they'd believe in Mom and Dad not Santa. If there wasn't any money to buy gifts they'd know it wasn't because some fat man didn't like them enough." Those words have always stuck with me. That's why we tell our children, that Santa can be anyone who really loves them, and that while Santa might bring the presents Mom and Dad always get the bills!
