A Christmas memory by Amy C. Roberts.
Every year prior to Santa visiting our home, it was tradition that all of my children would clean out their toy boxes and get rid of items that they no longer played with in order to make room for new toys from Santa. This was in the early ’90s when the county dumpster sites were not manned and people could just drive up and throw all of their trash away. Anytime people had stuff that was still useful but no longer wanted or needed, they would place it in front of the dumpster and someone would always pick it up late at night when no one was watching.
This particular Christmas snuck up on us and my children quickly reminded me that they had not cleaned out their toy boxes. They were worried that Santa would not come if they had not made room for new stuff. Every other year, I had taken their toys to a Christian ministry to be sure that less fortunate families could make use of them. So, at the last minute on Christmas Eve, we loaded up all of the toys, and I decided that I would put bows on them and set them in front of the dumpster closest to our house, since I had no time to take them anywhere else.
It worried me because I felt like I was too late for anyone to enjoy these toys. The next morning the children awakened to all of their new toys that Santa had brought and all was well. We headed out to our traditional Christmas breakfast at my mom’s and as we went past the dumpster I noticed that everything was gone and it looked like there was a note written on the bottom of a refrigerator box propped up against the dumpster. I quickly found a place to turn my car around and I went back. I couldn’t help but shed a few big puppy-dog tears when I read the note. It simply stated, “God Bless You Santa.” My Christmas had been made … as well as some other children who might not have had a happy Christmas morning otherwise.
When my children got old enough I told them this story and it has become tradition to tell this story every year at our Christmas breakfast.