December 15, 2007

Santa's job is real tough . . .

Finding a person to play Santa is real difficult.
Even if you want to pay him for the job.
Is it because there aren't many people around
to liven up people's lives?
Fr. Joe Andrew came to my rescue this week.
No, this Salesian priest isn't going to play that role. He loves giving sermons using Power Point visuals and graphics and is much in demand for the Christmas season.
Fr. Joe got us two young men who used to board and study at his school in San Thome to be part of our season's offer to bring Santa to the houses of people who wish to surprise their children. Or their loved ones.
Community newspapers - Adyar Times, Mylapore Times, Arcot Road Times and Velachery Plus - introduced this facility a few years ago when I realised how happy children were when they got gifts from Santa.
I guess today's generation would prefer to gift online.
Not in all cases.
Yes, there may be families who do not want to open their doors after 10 pm and Santa has to retreat to a chai shop down the road.
I can imagine their anxiety what with rogues coming in different veshams and conning people with their eyes wide open!
Santa's is a difficult assignment. Hard work.
There are people who want him to take the lift to the fourth floor, negotiate the corridors and do a jig in their drawing room.
This is a painful task even for a young man in our day when every other address is a multi-storeyed apartment block.
This year though, we have been getting calls from Homes for seniors, crèches and daycare centres.
Would we be able to send Santa to other neighbourhoods and arrange for gifts to be given to people there?
We would love to. Maybe next year we will try to reach out.
We will need two Santas. Got to start advertising that job early!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Dear Sir,

This may be a case of something or someone being right under one's nose going unnoticed.

Dare I suggest for Santa, the very one whose idea it was in the first place, the much-respected, and may I add, much-feared editor of Mylapore Times, a dead ringer if ever there was one! Needing perhaps nothing more than a silvery hair tint, he could do with a few classes of learning to be patient, polite and pleasant to kids of all ages, pesky and otherwise. And then, maybe a few more in bonhomie.

Give it a thought. This could turn out to be the role of a lifetime. Ho Ho Ho...Cheers! Merry Christmas!