What would Christmas be without a little holiday magic? Jim Hines, Yankee Candle’s Santa Claus, has a certain gift that he is at a loss to explain. He says there have been many memorable encounters with children, but one in particular stands out.
“One day, a young boy came up to me and asked if I was the ‘real Santa.’ I could tell that he was starting not to believe in me, and that was breaking my heart.”
The child invited him to prove himself by saying what Santa had brought him for Christmas last year. Jim (aka Santa) reminded him that he’d delivered about five billion presents on Christmas Eve, so he’d need a minute to think.
“After a few moments it came to me,” he said. “An Xbox 360.”
The child’s eyes grew as large as saucers and he whispered, “Yes. Thank you, Santa.”
Jim says epiphanies like this are not isolated incidents. What’s more, the enchantment continues throughout the rest of the year too.
“One day, I was at a Santa get-together over at the Peking Restaurant on Waller Mill Road,” he said. “There were about 20 or so of us there. While we were eating, a lady came up to me with her little girl, and I said ‘Abby, how are you?’”
The other Santas were quite impressed with Jim’s ability to remember the name of one child when there are so many visitors and wish lists (and this gathering was in the off-season).
“The thing is, I had never seen that child before,” Jim said. “I don’t know how I knew her name.”
He also doesn’t know how it is he can often anticipate what a child will ask for, or what one has asked for in the past.
Maybe it goes back to a long-ago horoscope that predicted “big cheer and joy to all you meet.”