Chris Clegg

Many years ago, a friend of mine told me of a good deed a High Prairie woman completes each Christmas.

It seems this woman helps Santa Claus respond to letters to Santa written by local children. The letters are received at the High Prairie Municipal Library Christmas party and at the local post office.

All was well until the current postal strike. It means the letters to Santa addressed to his North Pole Ho Ho Ho address are not being delivered. No matter! Rather than just forget the tradition this woman has held dear for so many years, she is making every effort to have the letters to Santa answered.

“Can we get the message out to the kids that Santa’s elves will take letters to the library that children wrote at the library party and left in the Santa mailbox there?” she asked me.

Of course! More than happy to oblige!

There is no quit in this woman!

There are so many people doing so many wonderful things during the holiday season. Whether it is giving financially, buying gifts for the needy, volunteering time to deliver hampers, organizing hampers – the list goes on and on and on!

For the most part, we do live in a caring society. Most people do care, and give when they are able. We need to be reminded is not just money that makes a difference. Time is also crucial.

What a joy it must be for this woman to give her time, sit down over a coffee and answer the letters the children ask. Better yet, what a joy it must be for children to receive an answer!

We all have our favourite stories of giving at Christmas. I am reminded in the late 1980s when I moved to High Prairie. The first Christmas season was very memorable. A man lived in an old shack at the west of town. Many will remember him as Frenchy. He was a fascinating fellow so I decided I would interview him. One early December Day, I paid him a visit and told him my plan. He was OK with the interview. I left promising to return.

“Wait!” he said. “Come inside.”

Off we went. He opened the door and there was a box of cherry chocolates on the table.

“Here!” he said, offering me one. “No one comes to my house at Christmas and doesn’t get something.”

What a wonderful gesture! He was a poor man scraping to get by. Yet, he found a way to share Christmas with a fellow human being he didn’t know.

Perhaps it was the unexpected pleasure of a treat that made it so special. Frenchy gave more of himself that Christmas than anyone else I knew.

I am also reminded of an old MAS*H episode where Charles Emerson Winchester gives a box of deluxe chocolates to the orphans. Anonymously, of course.

However, the caretaker of the orphanage sells the chocolates to buy rice and cabbage for the children, unknown to Winchester. He discovers the truth and angrily confronts the man. He explains he sold the chocolates on the black market and bought enough rice and cabbage to feed the children for a month.

Winchester is overcome with remorse.

“How inappropriate it is to give a child dessert when he has not yet had a meal,” Winchester tells the man, apologetically.

Or the Dragnet episode where a very poor boy steals a Baby Jesus figure from a church because he promised Jesus if he got a wagon for Christmas that Jesus would get the first ride. The boy returns Jesus to the church on Christmas Eve as the police officers are telling the priest they were unsuccessful in finding Jesus.

We all have our favourite Christmas memories. It might have happened on TV, in the community, or at home.

As for the woman who is answering letters to Santa, she will remain anonymous!

May your Christmas have an unexpected miracle this year!