Dear Santa

Dear Northwest Prime Time readers, writers, and editor:

My group of friends got together for "Dear Santa" letters and lunch. It was so much fun to hear all the "Dear Santa" stories, each one both personal, and yet familiar.

It was a fun exercise for our holiday celebration, and I wanted to share it with you.Stay safe and keep dry. Holiday hugs. April's photo.

DEAR SANTA
I would like to see the “Naughty or Nice” list, I suspect I could be on either choice. I never did get the lump of coal I always expected, although I am sure there were times when you were ready to drop it into the bottom of my eagerly hung Christmas Eve stocking.
I have three wishes. I know you aren’t a Genie, but three wishes seem like enough for a woman my age.
1. Like a Miss America contestant, I wish for world peace, with kindness and compassion.
2. I would like a special box wrapped in old-fashioned newspaper to celebrate childhood memories reading the funny papers, and when I had black ink on my fingertips, Dad teased me because I wouldn’t be a good criminal leaving my fingerprints all over. I want to open the empty box, and for a few minutes see a three D movie playing a long ago forgotten happy memory, a time when days were warm with dreaming.
3. Please ban the advertisements on TV for medicines, their descriptive side effects are disturbing, and just give a special public service announcement to see a doctor if you are sick would be helpful. Also, erectile dysfunction ads are only for half the population. It would be important and helpful for those advertisements to be turned into electile dysfunction, reminders to encourage the entire adult population to vote.
One more thing, Dear Santa, I seem to be shrinking as I age, and now I am another inch shorter. If this continues, I would like to apply for a future job to be a Santa’s Helper, or maybe lay around being an “Elf on the Shelf” to help you with the “Naughty or Nice” list.
Dear, dear Santa, you are a timeless celebration, giving a day of hope, dreams, and joy. You are a true fashion plate wearing the daring red suit. You can deliver a world of change, thanks to working Elves, flying reindeer, and a magical sleigh full of toys. Your “Ho, ho, ho,” while sliding down chimneys is rewarded with milk and cookies. Wishing you safe landings and a Happy New Year.
April Ryan has shared many poems as well as many stories over the years with Northwest Prime Time. This is, I believe, her first letter to Santa.
SHARING STORIES is a weekly column for and about the 50 plus crowd living in the Puget Sound region. Send your stories and photos to ariele@comcast.net. Tell local or personal stories; discuss concerns around aging and other issues; share solutions, good luck, and reasons to celebrate; poems are fine too. Pieces may be edited or excerpted. We reserve the right to select among pieces. Photos are always a plus and a one-sentence bio is requested (where you live, maybe age or career, retired status, etc.).
SHARING STORIES is featured on www.northwestprimetime.com, the website for Northwest Prime Time, a monthly publication for baby boomers, seniors, retirees, and those contemplating retirement. For more information, call 206-824-8600 or visit www.northwestprimetime.com. To find other SHARING STORIES articles on this website type "sharing stories" in the search function above.