I remember when I was growing up that our family had a wonderful tradition of gathering at midnight on Christmas Eve to receive presents from Santa. My father was one of five boys, and they were all very tall.
We had a large extended family and valued gathering together, especially during the holidays. Each year, one of my uncles would dress as Santa to give gifts to all his nieces and nephews. Sometimes there would be lumps of coal given to us with a statement about something we had done that year to misbehave. We always wondered how he knew!
One Christmas, each girl received a tube of lipstick that our mothers would have never allowed. For years, I didn’t think much about how tall our Santa was until I went to Miller & Rhoads and saw a short Santa. I knew then that something was special about our Santa.
–Ernestine Dodl, Resident
