#SantaProject – National Believe Day

 

Today is something special. It is National Believe Day! Macy’s #SantaProject wants everyone to believe. I want to share with you how I have always believed in the big guy.

The Christmas holidays have always been my favorite, ever since I was a little girl. The fun, the laughter, the warm & cozy nights, baking, and just everything about it. The movies I used to watch (the classic ones) added to the sentimental feeling.

We moved to Oregon in 2015, and last December, for the first time in my life, I celebrated Christmas with snow. It was a winter wonderland, and it has just begun snowing again this year.

One of the things I loved the best as a child was Santa Claus. Santa was absolutely magical, and I was smitten with him. Each year, I would wait not so patiently for him to come to our local shopping center so I could go and visit he and his helper. Weeks before I would see him, I would work on my holiday list. I always had a rather long list, and would sit on his lap and chat away. Here is a photo of me on his lap one year (I’m probably showing my age by the quality of the photo!). See how happy I look? Santa looks a little exhausted though…

Needless to say, Christmas Eve was extremely special to me. I knew that Santa Claus would be coming down the chimney and leaving presents. Every, single year, mom and I would leave cookies and milk out for Santa. I would scamper downstairs on Christmas morning to find a few bites out of the cookies and about 1/2 glass of milk left. I could barely contain my excitement when I found that he HAD been to my house! Next I would look around for my stocking – my other favorite part of Christmas. Santa always filled it with fun little things.

Whether you call him Santa Claus, St. Nick, Kris Kringle, or Father Christmas, the special feeling inside is the same. Macy’s wants everyone to believe in Santa Claus, and that is why they created the Santa is Real website.

Macy’s has always believed in Santa. That’s why we’ve created the #SantaProject, our mission to spread the magic of belief to the Internet and beyond. On this page, you’ll find some interesting information about the man himself, the history of belief in him, and the importance of keeping it alive in our modern age.

The Santa is Real website is full of great information about the big man himself, including where he lives, how old he is, how big is his sleigh, and why he likes milk and cookies so much. I finally learned, all of these years later, why he likes them so much. It turns out that Santa (much life myself) has a major sweet tooth! He also indulges a bit more than normal on Christmas Eve, since he has been SO busy.

When I had children, I carried on the same traditions I loved so much as a kid. We did add one other tradition though (and hopefully they will pass it down to their children!). We would leave reindeer food out front for Rudolph, et al. After all, reindeer get hungry too! We first got this idea when my daughter brought home a bag of reindeer food from school (she even got to make the bag!).

They like uncooked oatmeal apparently, so we would scoop handfuls out of the bag and leave little piles of the “feed” all over the front yard. The first thing my kids did on Christmas morning (after taking in the beauty of the tree, lights and presents), is open the front door to check on the reindeer feed situation. Every year, the reindeer came by and enjoyed their little feast!

I have such fond memories of Christmas from my childhood and also from when my kids were little. I am looking forward to grandchildren, so we can carry on our traditions with them, and share the magic known as Santa.

We believe in Santa…how about you?