Parental Guidance

The following post should be read with parental guidance, as there may be information inappropriate for young children, or those perpetually young at heart:

For those who believe in one, and only one, Santa Claus:

There is one, and only one, Santa Claus. He is the real Santa Claus. He flies down to Macy’s in New York City in his sleigh with his reindeer every day from the North Pole. He parks the sleigh on the roof and checks on them periodically throughout the day, feeding and taking care of them. There may be many entrances to see Santa, but every person who comes to Macy’s sees the same Santa, because there is only one Santa, as there is only one Shortcake. He is magic. If he can visit every home in the world on Christmas Eve, dropping off toys for all the good children, he can see every person who comes to Macy’s, even if they all use different entrances.

As was once said, in a very famous article, “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.”

For those who believe in Santa, but are willing to concede the laws of physics:

Santa Claus exists, and he lives at the North Pole, but he’s got a few helpers, Santas, elves and parents, working for him in Macy’s and all over the world. But if we all believe in the Christmas spirit, and give generously to our fellow humans, aren’t we all Santa, inside, a little bit?

For those cynical people who stopped believing in Santa years ago:

Yes, there are six different houses that hold up to six different Santas. In the morning we open with at least 3 Santas in the houses, and often go up to 4 or 5. On busy days (Saturdays, Black Friday, Christmas Eve), we have all six running full time.

There is even a Santa of non-Northern-European descent (known as “Special Santa” or “Good-looking Santa” or “Sexy Santa”) (politically incorrectly known as the “Black Santa”) who is in House 1 in the evenings. He is available by request only.

Shortcake saw Special Santa today for the first time. It’s kinda cool to think about. No matter how cynical you are, Santa can be any color, any ethnicity, anything you want him to be, as long as fulfills the mythology of Santa, i.e. eating cookies and bringing presents and going down chimneys and flying in a sleigh with reindeer. Okay, so, maybe that’s the commercialized version of Santa, propagated by Coca-Cola and Macy’s to spur sales of merchandise.