One of My Favorite Christmas Memories from My Childhood.

I was one of those kids that were curious about everything and anything when I was growing up. Like many kids I was always fascinated by Santa Claus and that I could not see him but he leaves me with lots of nice presents. As I got older I began to wonder about Santa more and more. This is a story about one of these things.

When I was about five years old I got the idea that I was determined to find out if there was a Santa Claus. For the next five years I thought of various ways to see if I could catch a Santa. I hate to admit it but I also thought if I caught him I could get more toys out of him. I could also confront him about the BB gun he would not give me at four (I did not get one till I was ten for a good report card). The first thing I tried using was a fingerprint kit that I got for one Christmas by the cookies. I did not call the police but asked my parents to do that to see who Santa was. Dad reminded me that he wore gloves. Mom had a friend of ours humor me and ask what he did wrong. I said breaking and entering. Mom and dad said since they were there when he came and let him in to give me my toys that would not fly. That was one idea down the drain.

The next year when I was six years old I got a bit more creative. I figured Santa liked junk food like cookies. I used an idea from the Looney Tunes Cartoons with the box and a stick. When Santa got the cookies it would catch him. Mom said I could not stay up so I had a much older cousin help me rig it up so when he reached his hand in he would trip fishing wire and bring the trap down. I woke up to find the cookies gone with a note that said love Santa. I was beginning to get discouraged. My parents thought I was spending more time wondering how to catch Santa than playing with my new toys. I still liked my toys and played with them though. Nothing special happened the next year. I tried to use a tray of glue by the cookies and all I got were cheap looking boots in the glue.

At eight I finally thought I had a good idea. I thought mom and dad might have been tipping Santa off so I decided not to tell them. First I thought of using thumb tacks but figured that might hurt Santa. I also figured that they might not get through the boots. I then figured I could use mouse traps. Since Santa wore boots it would not hurt him and it put bells on the mousetraps so when they went off I would hear the bells. I put some duct tape around the part of the trap so it would not hurt Santa. We had a sheet that we kept on the floor around the tree. I figured Santa would have to go there to put presents around. I set up like seven of them and made sure to take the cat to bed with me that night so she did not get caught in the trap. I was in that deep REM type sleep and heard yelling and some words that I thought Santa should not say. After that I started to get up and heard my dad tell me to stay in my room. When I woke up mom told me I caught Santa was he was really upset that I set a trap. He actually did not have boots on and it caught his big toe. Dads big toe was a big bruised as well but I did not think much of it at the time. Mom and dad said he was going to take all my presents back but didn't because they told him I would set no more Santa traps.

When I was about ten I found out the fat man bringing me presents all those years was dad. The first thing I thought was that I was glad I did not bake those laxatives into the cookies one year like I was going to. Then after that I thought he was going to be really mad about the Santa trap on his foot. He was not and said it really did not hurt that bad. They actually thought the ingenuity to do it was pretty ahead of my time.

I lost my father back in 2005 and memories like those could always bring a smile to both of our faces. The only thing that brought more of a smile to his face is when he remembered the time I got in trouble at school and he was going to punish me. We were studying the Bill of Rights at the time. I informed him that he could not punish me since they already punished me at school and that would be double jeopardy and a violation of the Fifth Amendment to the United States constitution. We had lots of good memories but that is a story about Christmas that my father never got tired of telling people.

I love and miss you Dad.

Merry Christmas