My sister and I were at the age when children don’t believe in the magic of Christmas and my mom was trying to find a way to create just a little bit of magic for us that year. She had a trick up her sleeve and was able to get the neighbours to help her out.
The plot was we went to visit my grandma and uncle who lived south of Unity. When we would arrive home, the neighbour lady, Judy, would come out of our house dressed as Santa and run around to the other yard where her husband would be waiting in the dark. Mom assured Judy that we would not run past the tree line dividing the two yards as we were somewhat afraid of the dark.
So, on Christmas Eve, we headed down to be with family. We had exchanged gifts, had an amazing supper and laughed all night long. Dad asked Mom to drive as he was up earlier than normal that day and wanted to get a nap in on the way home.
As we were driving home on Highway 21 north of town, we were listening to the radio play every Christmas song you could find. The classic Feliz Navidad came on the radio and my sister, Mom and I started singing along, only knowing the chorus and nothing else. We had the giggles from the late-night fun were having, that Mom had missed our turn off the highway to get home.
We were halfway to Cut Knife before she had noticed that she had gone too far. After we got turned around and onto the right road, we had finally made it home. Just in time to see Santa coming out of the house.
And just like Mom had expected, my sister and I started chasing Santa down the laneway, stopping before the tree line where the darkness lurked.
The next day after opening gifts, we started getting ready to go visit Dad’s family. I had gone outside to help Dad with something when I had noticed footprints on the backside of the roof, along with 2 straight lines imprinted in the snow.
“Look Dad! Santa’s sleigh was up there! See the sleigh marks and footprints!” I said.
All I got was a smirk and a ‘Mmhmm’ out of him. I was a believer of Santa again!
Years later, we have come to learn that our neighbour who donned the Santa suit ended up with a nasty chest cold the night she played the part, to the point where she had difficulties running away from us due to the tightness in her chest. Mom told her she didn’t have to do it if she was that sick, but Judy wanted to make us believe in the Christmas spirit again.
Oh, as for the footprints and sleigh marks on the roof? Those were from a few days before when Dad put the big star decoration on the rooftop.
