Claus

December 24, 2020

I was notified on our community calendar that Santa and Mrs. Claus were scheduled to make a preview trip through our subdivision to make sure they had the route down for tonight.  Obviously, the sleigh only works on Christmas Eve, so they were forced to find alternative transportation.  In this case it was a cobalt blue roadster.  While it was not being pulled by the eight tiny reindeer (or even Rudolph), it seemed the 300 horses were doing just fine.  Since this is 2020, the ride was properly socially distanced.

Santa Claus can be traced back hundreds of years to a monk named St. Nicholas.  It is believed that Nicholas was born sometime around 280 CE in Patara, near Myra in modern-day Turkey.  Nicholas was greatly admired for his piety and kindness.  It is said he gave away all his inherited wealth and traveled the countryside helping the poor and sick.  One of the best-known St. Nicholas stories is the time he saved three poor sisters from being sold into slavery or prostitution by their father by providing them with a dowry so that they could be married.  Over the years, Nicholas’s popularity spread, and he became known as the protector of children and sailors.  His feast day is celebrated on the anniversary of his death, December 6^th.  This was traditionally considered a lucky day to make large purchases or to get married.

Skipping forward 1800 years brought me to a question I have grappled with since my youth.   How does Santa make it around the world in just one night?  I immediately went to the source for such an important question.  “Although no one may ever know for sure just how Santa operates, we at HowStuffWorks have what we think are the most logical explanations for how the big guy accomplishes all that he does: science and technology.”  They went on to conclude Santa has mastered the power of Antimatter.  That means Santa has built a Stardust Antimatter Propulsion Engine.  This device would allow Santa to deliver toys around the world in one night and be back to the North Pole in time for a Christmas Day feast.  As impossible as this may sound, remember, it is always night somewhere, so Santa has a lot more time than just eight hours.

Thoughts:  The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) is a military organization run by both the United States and Canada.  Its job is to monitor all possible aerial attacks coming into North America.  NORAD is also the agency that tracks Santa arriving in North America on Christmas Eve.  This began in 1955 when Sears department store mistakenly listed Santa’s phone number as the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) operations hotline.  The tradition was passed to NORAD when it formed in 1958.      You can still call, and they even provide a mobile app.  Do the work.  Follow the science?  Change is coming and it starts with you.