The Santa Story

It's amazing to think I've been doing my Santa work for more than a decade now. No, I don't make toys way up at the North Pole. I'm a different kind of helper: his ghostwriter.

Our "partnership" began many Decembers ago. I'd been asked by the editor of the newspaper where I worked to write an article about Christmas traditions and Christmas history.

I'd always loved Christmas, of course, and as a reporter it was important for me to get all the facts right. I learned a lot. Did you know that Washington Irving—of Sleepy Hollow fame, not Clement Moore, the author of The Night Before Christmas—came up with the idea of flying reindeer? Or that Christmas creches originated in the mind of Saint Francis of Assisi? I found all of this fascinating.

But Christmas is about more than getting the facts straight, more than history: It's a feeling, too. I'd gotten an overwhelming, positive response to my Christmas article; letters poured in every day.

I hadn't realized that so many grown-ups still believed in Santa. Did I? I thought about it hard one day. Of course I did! And just then, out of nowhere, I heard a voice say, "You're right to believe in me." The hair on my arms stood up. Why shouldn't I believe in the spirit of Christmas himself? 

And so our collaboration began, and we wrote The Christmas Chronicles together. I've gotten to know Mrs. Claus over the years, too, and Santa's talented chef, Lars, who helped the big guy and me out on our latest book, Santa's North Pole Cookbook.

But my first encounter with Santa happened many years earlier, when I was a little boy. My dad was in the Air Force, so my family got to live in Germany and England—where the children eagerly awaited "Father Christmas" and opened up colorful foil crackers filled with little gifts—and, when I was very, very young, in Italy. 

We lived in an apartment on the Via Arenella in Naples. Every day I'd see neighbors inch the Wise Men in their creches a little closer to the baby Jesus. And I'll never forget finding gifts from La Befana—a good witch who flies around Italy leaving treats for children to find on January 6, The Epiphany.

The tradition holds that the Wise Men had asked her for directions when they were on their way to Bethlehem. She obliged them, but when they invited her to come along she declined their offer. After she'd heard what happened she felt very sorry she'd missed the blessed event, as you might imagine, so now she brings gifts to other boys and girls.