The Night I Saw Santa! re-posted

This story is of a very special sighting by none other than myself.  To this day I swear this really happened, even though I can’t explain it.

I will never forget one particular Christmas Eve, a night filled with magic.

We had all been sent to bed. The others were all asleep but I was wide awake. I listened to the sound of my parents in the other room, talking to my aunt and uncle, laughing, and having a happy time.

I moved and I turned carefully so I would not to wake my sisters sleeping in the bed next to me. I closed my eyes tightly, hoping that they would stay closed and I would sleep. I was afraid of not being able to sleep. My parents had reminded us, just before sending us to bed, that Santa would not stop at our house if we were not asleep. And so I lay in bed praying that I’d go to sleep so that Santa would come to our house. If I didn’t sleep and Santa stayed away, my brothers and sisters would find out that it had been my fault and they would be very angry at me!

It was no use. I couldn’t sleep. I was angry at myself for being so excited! I was keeping myself awake just by thinking about going to sleep! There was nothing to do.  The lights were off and the room was totally dark. I could not see anything. I couldn’t even move or my sisters would wake up. I made my eyes small so maybe  I could see things and at least keep myself busy looking around the room.

Finally I was able to see the chest of drawers  that held our clothes in its four drawers — one for each of my three sisters and the last for me. The second drawer held Irene’s clothes. She had left it open. It was almost closed, but not quite. There was something hanging out of the drawer. Perhaps whatever was hanging out had kept it from closing, or maybe Irene just hadn’t taken the time to close it all the way. She did that sometimes, because she’d get excited and forget to finish doing what she was doing.

Suddenly, I thought I saw something move! But everyone in the room was asleep except me! I looked carefully and saw it once again. There was something small moving. It was red and green. It looked like a tiny man. He was wearing a pointy hat and moved quickly and silently.

I kept quiet so I wouldn’t be spotted. Then another of these little tiny men appeared. They whispered to each other and moved to the dresser. I watched as they went through the drawer, pulling out our long stockings — one from each drawer. When they turned in my direction, I shut my eyes tightly.

With my eyes closed I heard a voice speak.  It was a light and friendly voice.  I carefully and slowly opened my eyes so I wouldn’t be spotted, just in case they were watching me. I couldn’t believe what I saw! There — in the room I shared with my three sisters — was a short round man with a long white beard and a moustache. He wore a red velvet suit with white fluffy cotton around the edges and on his feet, I saw black shining boots with a gold buckle.

 

Just as I was about to call out “Santa!” the round little man looked at me with a smile and a wink. He put one finger to his lips and with the other hand he sprinkled sparkly dust on my eyes.

The next thing I knew, my little sister was calling my name and tugging at my nightgown. “Hurry! Get up! It’s time to go open the presents! Hurry!”

I rubbed my eyes and looked around the room. Where was Santa? The darkness was gone too. The elves were gone. Santa was gone.

“Hurry! Hurry! Time to open presents. Hurry! Get up!” called Irene.

“Where’s Santa?” I asked, still trying to rub the sparkly dust out of my eyes.

“I dunno. Maybe he’s at home now,” answered five year old Irene.

I rubbed my eyes and looked around the room one more time. There were no elves and no Santa. I got up and followed Irene into the hall where the others were waiting for me so we could all go into the living room together to open the presents.

“I saw Santa Claus,” I announced proudly.

My brothers laughed. “Yeah! We saw him at the store yesterday too!”

“No! He was here! He was in my room last night. I saw him and two elves. They were in the room! You guys were sleeping! I saw him! I did!”

“What did they want? For you to choose all your own presents?” Carlos laughed as he looked at Richard and David. They just shook their heads and smiled.

My parents came into the hall and let us into the room with the big Christmas tree and all the presents.

“I saw Santa Claus! Mami! Deddy! I saw Santa Claus!” I ran to them to tell them but they just smiled at me and gently pushed me into the room with the tall snow sprayed  tree.

“He was in my room. There were two elves. They were getting stockings from our drawers,” I insisted.

“Oh! Really!? What were they doing with the stockings? They’re supposed to bring you things, not take them from you!” my oldest brother added.

“I don’t know. They were there. That’s all I know. They took my new white ones with the little flowers on them…but only one of them. Then they took Gilda’s that my Nino and Nina gave her for her birthday, the pink ones with little bows, but just one…” I continued to tell them excitedly, ignoring the tree with the presents that the others were already grabbing.

My parents said I could tell them later. I should open presents now. They didn’t believe me.

I was sad because no one believed me, only Irene and Gilda, the little ones. They believed me. No one else. Even the presents that I opened didn’t make me feel better. I just wanted them to know that I wasn’t imagining it. I really had seen Santa Claus! And I had seen the elves too!

As we finished opening all of the presents, Irene pointed. “Look! There’s my stocking! Why’s it there?”

We all looked and saw stockings. My new white one with the flowers … Gilda’s pink one with the bows … Irene’s blue one with little pink roses on them … and Sylvia’s white ones with candy canes…they were all there. Even my parents didn’t know why they were there. We got them and found them filled with candy, nuts, fruit, and coins. Just like in the books and the movies … we had gotten stockings from Santa for the first time!

My parents looked surprised.  They looked at each other . . .  then they looked at me  . . .  I smiled as I took my stocking.

“I told you I saw Santa Claus and the elves. They were taking our stockings from our drawers. I told you!”  I smiled as big a smile as I could, when  I said it.

I took my stocking and enjoyed the candy and nuts all day long. But what I really enjoyed most of all was knowing that I had seen Santa Claus. I was the only one that had seen him. I did not  imagine it!  I had seen Santa Claus. Santa Claus was real, and he had winked at me!