A Christmas For Carole

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The following is a true story. Consequently, any attempt to reproduce, rewrite, retell, or similar this tale for any sort of profit is prohibited by copyright and legal indemnity.  Some of the names, locations, and dates have been changed, since I don't have permission from the people in the story to tell it, but I do know everyone mentioned in the story you are about to read.

Thanksgiving Day dawned as an otherwise normal day for Chris, Carol and their family. However, unbeknownst to them, the family in the other side of their duplex was not good at frying turkey, and so before Black Friday shopping began, a fire erupted that consumed the entire house and burnt it completely to the ground. The family was devastated. Homeless, penniless, and bereft of belongings just before Christmas 2007, Chris and Carol took their two small children and moved in with Carole's parents while they picked up the broken pieces and fought with the insurance company for a settlement.

Meanwhile, their friend Nick took an interest in their plight. Over the next two weeks, he squeezed information out of Carole in conversations over the phone and in person and found out what the two children requested from Santa. Finally as Christmas day drew near, he told Chris and Carole about his plan to play Santa, found out where they were living, and made arrangements to deliver the gifts. That final week before Christmas 2007, he took the gifts, wrapped them, wrote individual and hand-written notes to each recipient, numbered them, and prepared. Each child had two gifts, and the first present was a camera so that the family could document Christmas together.

At 2:00AM Christmas morning, after working a twelve hour shift the day before, Nick rose from his bed, loaded everything in the car, and drove 42 miles to the country village in Mississippi where his friends lived. He dropped the packages on the porch, sent a text and drove home to go to sleep. He had no plans of his own, no family with whom to celebrate Christmas, and had to work the next day anyway.

The children were overwhelmed, and Carole's parents were completely aghast that someone would go to these lengths. Everyone knew that the parents had not played Santa because nobody recognized Nick's handwriting, and because nobody knew what the gifts were until they were unwrapped. Carole's daughter Sara was overwhelmed to have a personal note from "Santa", and her son Daniel was elated to get some of the gifts from his list. Both of them were surprised and excited that Santa had found them despite losing their home and having to move. For the next seven years, Sara swore to all of her friends that Santa really existed and sometimes produced the note Nick wrote to prove it to her friends.

In 2014, Nick drove to visit Chris, Carole, and their family at their new brownstone in NW Philadelphia. You see, they hadn't seen each other for years, and Sara, who now knew that Santa wasn't real and that Nick had come to deliver the presents, wanted to meet her Santa. She still has the note. She still believes in miracles.

While serving as a missionary I came across the now famous statue in a town mentioned in stories. At the center of the plaza, a statue of Jesus Christ stands there without any hands and with a plaque at its base. During WWII, bombs hit the statue, but when the town folk reassembled the statue, they couldn't reproduce the hands. So, the elected not to try and placed the plaque which reads, "Jesus has no hands but our own." Christmas is the season of miracles, the season of perpetual hope. You don't have to do big things and save Christmas like Nick did for his friends, but there are things you can do to help others find joy, peace, and happiness at Christmas and all throughout the year. Consider these suggestions to make this a Season of Light, and do what you can to spread light through the darkness to those who struggle and strive. I still believe in miracles. You can make them happen.