Story 7 of 24:  Brian and I never wanted to give the overweight guy in the red velvet suit all the credit for the great presents under the Christmas tree. While Santa’s gifts were small and unwrapped, we were responsible for the bicycles and PlayStations.

One year, I asked Lorrin what she wanted Santa to bring her for Christmas. She was lying on her stomach on the kitchen linoleum drawing and coloring her own set of Reindeer horns.

“Nothing,” she said.

“You don’t want presents this year?”

“Yeah. I just don’t want anything from Santa.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because all he makes is wooden trains and teddy bears.”

My knowledge of the North Pole flashed through my mind; Santa’s workshop with Elves in an assembly line putting together wooden trains, material dolls with yarn hair and button eyes, and teddy bears. What else was there?

It would be several more years before the movie, Elf, came out, and the toys changed to Etch-a-Sketches and Jack-in-the-boxes. Of course, there was the Claymation, Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer, where the Island of Misfit Toys was introduced, but those toys were the equivalent of White Elephant gifts.

The consensus of what the Polar Toy industry manufactured was indeed, wooden trains and simple stuffed bears.

After doing her own Intel—watching movies, listening to the photo opportunist at the mall and the kids who willingly told the guy what was on their wish list—Lorrin concluded that there wasn’t anything Santa could bring her and therefore, writing him a list was a waste of time. I immediately felt guilty. Perhaps her father and I had done an unjust thing seeking all the glory for Christmas?

I can’t remember what presents LoLo received that year, though I’m sure it wasn’t made at the North Pole.