My Kids’ Santa Claus

My 3 stepsons are now all grown up. One has blessed me with my darling grandson – the light of my life.

My family’s Santa’s don’t look like the Santa’s I grew up with. They might not look like yours, either.

Which leads me to a little back story as to why Santa comes in different colors in my house.

Christmas 1991 -

BBH’s three sons were getting ready to move in with us on the 1st of the year. They spent a weekend in December with us for Christmas-planning festivities.

I was very excited at the prospect of becoming a mother to a 7, 10 & 12 year old.

I thought having a family meant tons of warm, fuzzy Kodak moments.

I had wanted kids for-evah in the worst way, but God had other plans for me.

Being a 30-something woman who hadn’t been around little boys, I did what anyone would do – I bought ceramic ornaments for the boys to paint.

Being a 30-something woman who was extremely, uh, thrifty, I only bought 4 or 5 colors of paint, figuring they could mix their own colors.

Surprise #1 – they didn’t know how to mix colors.

Surprise #2 – ‘craft’ time with 3 not-so-little boys didn’t go like the commercials on TV (or the warm, fuzzy images in my mind)

Surprise #3 –  they painted Santa with brown faces.

I still have those ornaments, tucked safely away in a box. Somewhere.

Being a 30-something woman with no parenting experience, these were only the first of many, many surprises.

Many.

People tried to warn me about the perils of step-parenting, but I didn’t listen. Heck, I was raised in a blended family. If anyone should’ve known, I should’ve.

But that’s another story.

This story is about Santa with the brown face.

Back in the 90’s it was nearly impossible to find brown Santas.

So I painted my own.

It’s still not too easy to find brown Santa’s.

Now, 20 years later, with a ‘light brown’ grandson, I thought I was better equipped to explain Christmas, white Santa’s, brown Santa’s, and why it’s the season of GIVING.

Surprise # 537 – 3 year old’s ask harder questions than this 50-something gramma can answer.