How My Mother Lost Santa Claus

I've been meaning to write this little tale for a while - I wanted to capture it because I found it sweet and touching.

Thanksgiving 2008 I am sitting in the living room of the ranch in South Dakota with my mother and the conversation turns to Christmas and from there to Santa Claus. My mother asks me - "Do you remember when you discovered that Santa Claus wasn't real"?

I thought about it for a minute and realized I have no memory of discovering that Santa Claus was not real. My mother found that amusing and commented that as an imaginative child, I most likely discovered Santa Claus wasn't real and just decided that was okay, because I made up all kinds of things that were not real. She also had no recollection of me discovering there was no Santa Claus.

Then, she told me how she figured out there was no Santa Claus. She was a young girl and she and her sister Marie were living with Grandma Valeria in Rosebud, South Dakota. My mother very much wanted a Kewpie doll for Christmas.

Well, Christmas rolled around and her sister Marie got a Kewpie doll, but my mother did not. She was heartbroken by it. Marie (being the older of the two sisters) tried to give my mother her doll, but my mother told her - no, Santa brought that for you, so it's yours.

Grandma Valeria of course saw how heart-broke she was and told her that Santa probably dropped the doll somewhere by mistake. Santa sometimes did that, and then he would back track, find the present and deliver it a few days late. My mom had a tough time swallowing that one, wondering how Santa could possibly find a lost present and know who to take it too, given the number of presents he had to deliver on Christmas day.

A few days later Grandma Valeria asked my mother to go back into the bedroom and remake the bed. My mother, being, I am sure, strong willed even then, refused. It was Marie's turn to make the bed, my mother had seen Marie make the bed, and my mother was not going to remake the bed.

Grandma Valeria insisted, Marie chimed in, and together they finally coerced her into remaking the bed. There, tucked in the bed, under the pillow - was my mothers Kewpie doll. My mother of course was elated and amazed. She had the beloved doll as did her sister.

But, a few days went by, and by that childhood process of logic my mother slowly figured out what had happened. She wasn't sure if, in house-hold chores she found package or wrapping or something, but somehow she deduced that what had happened was that the doll, ordered from a catalogue, had simply been late in arriving. She was a little saddened to discover there was no Santa Claus, but she was happier that Grandma Valeria and Aunt Marie has gone through that for her.