Back around 1990 I played Santa one time for my high school’s Beta club or Octagon club, can’t remember which – they were doing a Christmas dinner for disadvantaged children the week before Christmas. One little boy asked me for a Nintendo, and I said “I’ll see what I can do,” and then a few kids later, his older sister came up and said “I don’t want anything, but could you get my little brother a Nintendo? He wants one so bad.” – It broke my heart so bad I almost started crying right then and there.
I asked if I could keep the Santa suit for a few more days, and Christmas day, I found out where they lived and got all my friends to donate any old games/equipment/accessories they didn’t play anymore and gathered up about 25 games, a Nintendo, power-pad, light gun, power glove and sensors, and all the cables to hook it up, and one parent donated a 27 inch TV. I drove up to their house in that Santa suit, in my purple firebird (lol, it was hard to explain where the reindeer were) and gave that little boy a Nintendo.
I’d never seen a child so happy, and I was trying my best not to cry with his mother, she was that mix of happy, excited, crying, covering her face, and couldn’t stop thanking me. I hooked up everything and got the kids started with it and explained how everything worked and how to hook it up, and they were just so amazed that Santa brought them all that and stayed all afternoon to play with them.
Because his older sister was so selfless and gave up her wish to him, we rounded up enough to get her a pink and purple bike with the streamers on the handlebars, and one of those Barbie camper playsets. She thanked me so sweetly for her presents and thanked me for her little brother’s Nintendo. I tear up every time I think about it.
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