Father And Son Santas

I've been going through the old family album, and I found a couple of pictures I wanted to share with you this Christmas... Here is a picture of Mrs. Matthews - who I swear has not aged a day in 15 years - with our son, Brad, at the tender age of 3 months. Brad was a premie - he was 2 months early and weighed 4 1/2 pounds at birth, so he was still a pretty little guy - probably about 9 pounds when this shot was taken...




Brad was the hit of the WMAL holiday party that year... Since he was so little, and was attached to a breathing monitor to boot - we had to bring him to the party, where everyone promptly fawned over him!




Finally, I told you recently that I was a department store Santa in my student days at Syracuse. Well, my sister Jill has unearthed a newspaper clipping (that I had completely forgotten even existed) from the Syracuse New Times in December of 1981, in which yours truly was asked what I, as Santa, wanted for Christmas... And my answer in those recessionary times is oddly fitting in these recessionary times!




I may or may not be posting in the next week or so - it all depends on whether something strikes my fancy - but most likely, I'll see you all back here in this space after the New Year! Happy Holidays, everyone!

Ford...GM... Chrysler... SANTA?

Seems like everyone's asking for a bailout these days!

It's Not Easy Being Santa!

When I was in college, I spent one Christmas season working as Santa at the Dey's department store in downtown Syracuse, New York. I enjoyed the job, sitting right outside the toy department, asking the kids what they wanted for Christmas. The only thing that really drove me nuts was that the only music they had was the Muppets Christmas album, which unfortunately scarred me for life. To this day, whenever I hear them sing "The 12 Days of Christmas", and Miss Piggy lets out "Five Go-olllld Riiiiinngs!!!", I break out in hives. (shudder!)

The only bad thing that happened to me was one or two little kids peeing on my leg. That was uncomfortable, but at least I didn't own the suit or have to pay to get it dry-cleaned! The guy in this video had it MUCH worse!