It was Christmas Eve and Santa would soon be on his way to deliver presents to our home. We didn’t have a chimney, so I never knew how he was able to get into our house. Did he use the front door, or was he able to magically appear in our living room? Santa had always been such a mystery.

That day had been long for all of us. My siblings and I were on Christmas break from school, so we spent the days at the convenience store that our parents owned. It was like a second home to us, so we didn’t mind. Plus, there were always interesting people to watch and fascinating things to do.

On that particular evening, my parents were in an unusual rush to get home. I didn’t think much about it, assuming that they were just excited about Christmas. We pulled up in our driveway, and my stepfather requested that we all remain in the car until he returned.

He got out and went around to the back to unload items from the trunk. Meanwhile, our mother successfully distracted us from seeing what he was carrying.

Being only seven years old at the time, I was not a very good listener. Plus, his odd behavior piqued my curiosity, so after a couple of minutes I jumped out of the car and ran inside to see what was going on.

Swinging the front door open, I saw my stepfather standing next to the back sliding glass door. Hearing the door open, he quickly turned to look at me with a mixed expression of surprise and concern on his face. Then without hesitation, he pulled the back door open a few inches and immediately closed it again.

Confused, I stared at him wondering, “What are you doing?”, but didn’t say a word.

“Look! Santa came! He used the back door!” he exclaimed.

I was never shy to speak my mind, “No he didn’t. That was you! You’re Santa.”

As of that day, even though my stepfather tried so hard to convince me that Santa really came, the magical Santa Claus would never return. Regardless, it made for a great memory that always brings a smile to my face and there were still presents under the tree!





“Typing my heart out” for Nano Poblano/NaBloPoMo. This post is for today’s writing prompt: favorite holiday memory.

