When I was a little boy in Charleston, the place to meet Santa was at the Diamond Department Store for their annual Breakfast with Santa.  There is something great about growing up in the old days of the huge department store, where there was everything you needed under one roof, and when you went to shop, you had coffee, tea or lunch at the restaurant inside.  And once a year, the department store was lucky enough to host a breakfast meeting with Santa Claus.  And I was lucky enough to get to go.  And years later, after the Diamond Department Store was gone, Santa still came to town, but he sat on a big throne in the middle of the mall courtyard, surrounded by swirls of shoppers and lines of kids.  It wasn’t the same.

I honestly don’t remember much about having breakfast with Santa, but I remember what everyone remembers of those really early events…that Santa was a BIG DEAL.  And as I grew up, that never changed, the idea of Santa, the magic of Santa was always big in my family.  We got gifts from Santa well into adulthood.  Stockings were always stuffed with goodies, long after we knew who was doing the stuffing.  And in spite of all the changes we have gone through, one thing is still there…Santa.  And he’s still bringing us a little Christmas spirit just when we need it the most.