The Best Laid Plans of Elves..

Our family was planning a Christmas to remember for my nieces aged 4 and 6. We had arranged for a friend, whom the girls did not know, to play Santa Claus. He was rather portly, with a great 'Ho Ho Ho!'. We had a Santa suit, fake white beard and a sack big enough to hold all of the girls' presents.

On Christmas Eve my sister-in-law brought the girls to my parents' house. They had a large house. It had three apartments. When you entered the front door there was a small vestibule. The door to the right was to my aunt's apartment, the door to the left was to my parents' apartment. The center door was to a large upstairs apartment that was rented to college students. Since it was Christmas, the college students were away on vacation. Their apartment was empty.

The plan was perfect. The girls' gifts were dropped off at 'Santa's house'. After dinner my parents would phone Santa while the girls were singing Christmas carols in front of the Christmas tree. Santa would beep his horn when he arrived.

My parents kept the girls busy with their backs to the front door vestibule, while Santa went upstairs. The front room of my parents' apartment had a fireplace which shared a chimney with a fireplace in the college students' apartment. Santa opened the flu in the fireplace upstairs and gave out a hearty "Ho Ho Ho!" This could be heard coming out of the fireplace in my parents' apartment.

My parents called out, "Santa is on the roof by the chimney! Let's go outside and see if we can see him up there!"

Everyone went outside. Standing in the snow covered yard, looking up at the roof top, looking for signs of Santa, his sleigh or his reindeer.

While the girls were focused on the roof top, Santa came downstairs and entered my parents' apartment. He left the front door from the vestibule open. And once again he let out a hearty "Ho Ho Ho!"

The girls heard his Ho's and ran inside. There by the tree was SANTA in al his glory - red suit, white beard, and green bag filled with gifts!

The girls literally wept in sheer joy at the sight of him.

Santa had them sit down in front of the Christmas tree. He pulled out wrapped presents one by one. He read off the name on each gift tag. Soon there was a stack of wrapped gifts in front of each girl. The girls were to take turns opening one gift at a time. While the girls were distracted by the piles of presents, Santa crept out of the room. He went upstairs to the fireplace in the college students' apartment. He leaned into the flu and in a booming voice, "Ho Ho Ho! Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!"

The adults told the girls that Santa had flown away to bring gifts to other children. For a moment the girls stood at the window in wide-eyed wonder. They had seen and met Santa! He had left them piles of gifts! This was the best Christmas ever!

The adults were patting themselves on the back. They had planned it perfectly. This would be one Christmas the girls would remember as long as they lived!

While the girls went back to their loot, Santa slipped out unseen.

The six-year-old opened her first present - a pretty pink dress! Everyone ohhhed and ahhhed about how nice it was. Her younger sister opened a present - pretty little shoes! She was thrilled. Just getting wrapped boxes to unwrap was enough for her. The fact that there was something in the boxes was just icing on the cake.

Her older sister opened up a second present, ripping off the wrapping paper with fierce intensity and high expectations. It was a pretty pink sweater! The next package was a pair of pretty pink pajamas. The next one -a pretty pink hat and matching mittens. Each package held nothing but clothes!

She tossed the clothes over her shoulder and went for the next package, hoping against hope, that the next box would contain something FUN! And again - more CLOTHES! Not one toy, not one doll, not one game! Just clothes.

She sat in the middle of a pile of wrapping paper, ribbons and bows. Surrounded by nothing but clothes. She wept in total frustration and anger. She looked imploringly from one adult face to the next, pleading with her eyes. Surely there was some other package somewhere that was for her that was not clothes!

But she had opened them all. And all there was was clothes!

Everything had been planned out so well. But the adults had not gotten together to plan what to give the girls. Each expected that some one would give a toy, a doll, or a game. No one did.

It was true. This would be one Christmas one niece would never forget. The year Santa brought her nothing but pretty pink clothes.