Father Christmas

Being an old grandad who knows everything. (Trust me)

This is the definitive answer to all your querys with regards to Father Christmas (Santa Claus)

A couple of years ago, our whole family, Me and Wendy, our daughter, her hubby, his parents and of course our two lovely grandaughters. visited Lapland, just prior to Christmas.   Not prepared to do the 24 or 48 hour thing, we opted for 7 days.   150klm north of the artic circle, Finish Lapland.

Wow! what an experiance.

We did the whole bit, reighndeer sleigh ride (races??? Na not us guv.). Dog sleigh rides, snow mobile tundra safari, (we loved it so much, we booked independantly for a whole 6 hour exploration with an alternative company, what a buzz, crossing a frozen lake at 70kmh, with "W" howling at the back to slow down.(Fat Chance!!!we used to ride motor bikes and side cars with W leaping over the side to the left on right hand bends with only a car fan belt looped through the suspention to hang on to)) Coach trip back to the artic circle to meet "HIMSELF" actually on the artic circle, in Santa Land. ( yes I know its corney, and I would'nt give you thank you for a theme park,) but this was something different.

OK you arrive by coach, park in the coach park, ( remember, it is pitch dark by 2pm, in fact it only gets what we would call dusk at about 11-30 am at that time of year) as we walked, following the tour company rep, into the centre of Santa Land. We were surrounded by "ELVES", yes folks genuine Santa's Elves, hundreds of them. Little people in red cloaks and bonnetts, playing in the trees, running round us and the coaches, hiding behind timber buildings, playing in the snow and ice,  and leading us to Santas' headquarters.

Santa's chief elf asked us all some questions about ourselves prior to meeting the great man, and blow me down, when we met him he knew so much about us as a familly, it was quite uncanny. (Emoticon wink)  He even remembered that he did'nt send me the gift that I had asked him fo in 1942, but according to himm, he had a problem that year with the air being full of war planes. (Well if you cant beleive Santa , who can you beleive??)

I have never met such a huge man before, I can't immagine what size shoes he takes, (and judging by his hands (which are not covered by any form of fabric) I would suspect that his size is more or less genuine) after all there is only so much that you can exagerate when he is surrounded by a familly group for the best part of 10 minutes.

For my point of view, the most magical moment came when we left Santas Headquarters, to be confronted by an enourmouse hill of ice, completely covered with elves in red, there were ice steps  up, slides, sluces and down runs, full of little elves. When one of the boy elves noticed our girls, he came over and invited them to join the rest of the elves in their fun, only Sophie was brave enough to venture onto this mountain of ice and swoop down to the ground again, but with that Emma (the youngest) was'nt going to be  outdone.  So she too joined in the fun. Santa's post office and gift shops palled into insignificance from then on.

Some months later, at home, Sophie was remembering our holiday in Santa Land, when she asked Wendy "Nana, do you remember when we were in Santa Land, did you notice if the elves had pointed ears? " To which Wendy replied, as all good Nanas would. " No Sophie, I did'nt notice, they had their hats pulled over their ears to keep them warm". After all it was 19 degrees below freezing at the time. (And we all know that genuine elves have very pointed ears, dont we?)

You want to know if Santa really exists?

Just come and ask me. I'll just prove it to you. I'm a grandad, I know these things.

Having re-read all this I have difficulty in focusing on what I have written, I think I have something in my eyes and I have to wipe them. This is something that grandads do a lot of sometimes.

Bob.