Santa Within

We will be taking a holiday break, but there is always time for some notes from the North Pole that include one of Santa’s favorite stories and a geocache in Alaska.  Don’t take my word for it.  Read the story in the link below.

My Log

When we visited the North Pole and said Ho Ho Ho, I wondered how many items in the Santa store at were made in China and subject to Trump’s tariff. We did not spend long enough here to research.

The large statue showed Santa Claus checking his list – twice. Santa can’t be too careful. Maybe I should move here to become the attorney for the naughty. The firm’s slogan might say “Naughty? Call us. We can get you on the nice list when all else fails.” 

Perhaps also a local business at the Pole could offer seminars on how to turn Naughty into Nice. It’s a skill that seems to be increasingly lost.

There is a certain nostalgia to places like this. When I grew up we lived close to a Santa Claus village. I loved it because there was a miniature train ride and thematic stores that included a giant soft serve ice cream cone. Frosty, Rudolph and Santa. They were all there. The Reindeer Room bar might have been the last to survive, Santa needed some place to relax and have some something st the end of the day. It’s gone, but the area still bears the name Santa Claus Lane.

In any event this also brought to mind my favorite holiday story. I eventually met the author through mutual friends and got a private reading of the story. It has become the classic tale of our season

Jay lived in New York and would look at the holiday mail addressed to Santa. The post office was glad for the help. He kept looking for the ones that told Santa not bring anything for them but others in the family needed help. Their mother was cold at night or their brother was ill . . . That kind of thing.  And then the Christmas story unfolded. The parent might not have understood why someone knocked on the door, but the child knew why Santa was there. *They had written a letter.*

Jay was always ready in case there was a child at the home who had been left out. One year a girl was sad but she told Santa that she could not get anything because she was Jewish. Santa asked her to come close, and as he gave her a present he whispered, “So am I.”

The complete story is The Santa Within Me by Jay Fraxton. May we all find the Santa within ourselves.

8/29/2025