Santa Who??...

"Little Sling..Wake up..Santa Claus came!"...

I adored my big sister.She was,after all,the source of all the the important life skills I had acquired to date.
Things like,it isn't polite to snatch bees from the flowers,and I needn't fear the gentle daddy-long-legs,because he makes ice cream.These things had served me well enough to trust that it would be wise to follow.I shuffled after her,rubbing the sleep from my eyes,piggy-toes peeking out from the tattered feet of my flannel PJ's,into the living room to meet this "Santa Claus".

I had met Grandma and Grandpa.Aunt Doris,and Uncle Maurice.
They smelled like candy,and were always eager to sit me on their laps and tell me stories,or rock me gently to sleep.One can't have too many acquaintances of this nature,I surmised.
Nothing,not even the dutiful counsel of my big sister,had prepared me for this wondrous apparition..

Santa Claus was a giant!
The twinkle-twinkle-little-star he wore for a hat brushed the ceiling.
He wore a miraculous coat of multi-colored baubles,shining silver 'basketti,and softly glowing lights that bubbled lazily, just like dad's beer!..and he brought things,..marvelous things.

My eyes were too small to open wide enough to take in the bonanza of satin wrapped packages,and I couldn't tell you today what treasures lay within..Save one.

Circling Santa's feet,amber headlight shining,and grey smoke puffing from it's engine,was a REAL choo-choo-train!

These memories are what remain, a half century after the fact.It's my very first,and most enduring recollection of Christmas.Which,as my all-knowing big sister was later to inform me,was also the occasion of my third birthday....A blessing on your houses..