The Monster

Greetings!

Month before last Santa talked about a man by the name of James Edgar who was largely responsible for Santa’s current pattern of appearing every year in countless stores, shopping centers and Malls. He also said that Mr. Edgar probably never realized that he had helped create something of a monster by doing so. This intrigued me so I made sure Santa kept his promise to explain what he meant this month.
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Yes, James did create something of a monster and as a result has had great impact on my existence.

Prior to my debut at the Boston Store, I was in control. I visited children. Children did not visit me. With this new idea of having Santa in stores children had a major say as to if, where and when they saw me.

Come summertime, kids would be out of school and bored. They would go to Mom and say, “Let’s go down to …” and mention a local department store. “I want to see that guy in the red suit with the white hair. I’m fresh out of toys.” It was an annoying problem.

Eventually it was solved and I had almost nothing to do with it. While I was getting established in the stores, major explorations were afoot. Robert E. Peary desperately wanted to be the first person to reach the North Pole. For nearly a quarter of a century he tried, time and again. It wasn’t until April 6, 1909 that he finally claimed success and even then there was a chance that he had failed. It is widely thought that an error in navigation placed him many miles off base.

Peary’s repeated failures were significant because they were common knowledge.

Around the turn of the century communications were not what they are today. Television wouldn’t be invented for another twenty plus years. Radio was in its infancy and had not yet become a “communicator.”

People relied on newspapers for the latest word. Exploration was newsworthy and almost daily there would be brief blurbs on the front page of every major newspaper regarding the latest development, or lack thereof. “Failures” were “news.” They were reported - -and read. Peary wasn’t doing very well and everyone knew it. The conclusion was obvious. If a man who had made a career out of getting to the North Pole couldn’t get there then nobody could.

Therein lay the solution to the parent’s problem. When little children everywhere cornered mom and dad during the off-season and said, “Let’s go see Santa”, the conversation would go something like this:

“We can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because we can’t.”
“But why not?”
“Because we can’t go where he lives. No one can.”
“Where does he live?”
“Uh…uh…the …North Pole. Yes! The North Pole. That’s where he lives, at the North Pole. And nobody can go there. Why even Peary can’t get there. You know that!”

And that did it. I was arbitrarily settled once and for all at the North Pole.

I might add it suits me just fine. You might say I’m sitting on top of the world.
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When Santa left he pointed out that as of July 1st Christmas ’03 was 183 days in the past and Christmas ’04 was 183 days in the future. Apparently he thought it a perfect time for me to assess my behavior.

Until the next time…

Santa’s Friend

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