Sawfish Online Wants You in the Spirit: Tell Us Your Favorite Christmas Story! Here's Ours

That's Santa Claus and me in the Brown Hotel in Louisville. He wishes you a Merry Christmas with love and happiness!

The holidays are the perfect time to slow down and take a look at all the blessings that have come your way throughout the year. I love Christmas time – probably more than your average dad who pays the credit card bills for presents stowed upon two spoiled kids. I say I, we (Liz, my wife, and I), are truly blessed to be able to pay it all off before Santa comes next year – seriously, that’s what it feels like, giving a new meaning to “celebrating” Christmas every day of the year.

Sawfish Online is taking a break from business today. There won’t be any quips about content marketing and SEO or boring stats on analytics. This is Christmas, dammit! So let’s trade our favorite Christmas stories and Santa Claus right here, whether they’re sappy, funny, nostalgic, sad, whatever the story, share it. I’ll share a couple of mine since it feels as if there are two forms of Santa Claus, when you believe in and when you become Santa Claus.

First, I’ll tell you when I truly believed in Santa Claus (and I still do). Little did I know when I was 6 or 7, that Santa Claus is a spirit, a real life feeling and idea that good will be delivered. Since this one Christmas when I was little, it’s always been my thing to help other people whenever I could, whether it’s Christmas or not. It happened one year when my dad wasn’t working. He worked for Caterpillar building tractors. It was about 1980 or 1981, and things were real slow. And, if I remember it right, my dad was laid off from work a little before Christmas. I remember there was a lot of quiet discussion in the house because we didn’t have a lot of money, and there wasn’t any guarantee that presents would be under the tree Christmas morning. I know that would have openly destroyed my mom while dad would have been the quiet, stoic person he is while it killed him inside.

Then the magic of Christmas happened. The local union hall dad was a part of with Cat had a toy drive for all the families that were out of work, and delivered gifts to all of us kids along with a turkey for dinner. Indeed Santa Claus delivered, solidifying my belief in him and trust in people that there will always be more good than evil in this world, only if we believe. After that Christmas, things were more “normal” for us, and Santa would bring train sets and dolls, but nothing could ever beat the soccer ball and footie pajamas that Santa gave me that Christmas.

Now to present day of being Santa Claus. It was early December of this year as Liz and I stayed at a fancy, historic hotel in Louisville, Kentucky. It was fun but way too quiet without both kids being with us on the trip, so the last morning there, we hurried up to pack our bags to check out.

When the elevator opened on the lobby floor, there he was, Santa Claus with three elves setting up his chair with gifts for little kids to come see him in this beautiful lobby. Being the kid I am, I dropped my bags, yelled “SANTA!” and walked over to give the jolly ol’ St. Nick a hug. Now, being 40 years old, I obviously know that wasn’t Santa himself, but one of his helpers. C’mon, right? But holy crap, it was still Santa, and Santa was just excited to see a kid my size (and let’s just say I make Santa truly look like an elf) come over and give him a squeeze. It was magical, and you can see the big grins on both of our faces in the picture Liz took of us. Santa thanked me for all cookies I left him throughout the years. I explained, in detail, what the kids wanted this year, and then Santa asked what I wanted. I told him this year was different, that I have everything I need, and I was going to leave him an extra special gift on Christmas Eve.

“What’s that?” Santa asked.

“Santa, I’m going to leave out the good scotch just for you,” I told him. You can have as much as you want. It will keep you warm, you know?”

Santa broke out laughing.

“Ho ho ho, young man that will be between you and me,” he said. “I won’t tell Mrs. Claus.”

We hugged, shook hands and as Liz and I headed home while Santa probably stood there thinking “who the hell was that and is he drinking already?”

And I know for a fact that Santa is bringing everything the kids wanted. Ahhhhh … the magic of Christmas. Merry Christmas from Sawfish Online!

Larry


P.S. Here's a little Christmas Cheer...

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