A Christmas Story

We used to have Deaf foster sons and one of them was from a Jewish family. His birth mother had told me I could teach him about Christianity and take him to church because he wasn’t getting any religion otherwise. He wondered why Santa Claus had never brought him any gifts, so I told all the boys the true story of Nicholas, who did secret good deeds and eventually became known as Santa Claus. Since the boys were all Deaf of course I told it in Sign Language.

Of course I made up the actual good deeds since the only one we know is about Nicholas throwing gold coins down a chimney to provide a dowry for young girls so they could get married. Some versions I’ve read say that was so they wouldn’t be sold into prostitution when their father died and that is NOT appropriate for kids.

In the early 1980s I had gotten one of those newfangled things called a computer.

One day I remembered that college professor who had told me I’d never make it as a writer because I had no creativity. I realized I’d been writing everything in his class according to the thesis sentence outline we’d learned for the College Entrance Exam. Of course my writing had been uncreative!

So I wrote down the story I’d been telling our boys, sent it off to Pockets magazine, and it was accepted right away! I even got paid for the story, so I was a professional writer! The title of the story was Secret Service Saint.

Later I was teaching at a Catholic school and had to write and direct a Christmas show for the whole student body. I rewrote Secret Service Saint as a play and it was performed.

Then in 2009 Secret Service Saint was accepted and published as a book by Guardian Angel Publishing. 

Anyone who wants kids to learn the truth about Santa Claus and be encouraged to do secret good deeds should give them this book. It’s available at the usual online places and local bookstores can get it through their distributors. It’s also available as an e-book.