Santa Came by Stage

© Craig MacDonald

(Some children reach an age when they become skeptical about the existence of Santa Claus. My grandmother lived near the site of the  following story she told me when I was young. Years later I passed it on to my son.)

In the 1880s, a 10-year-old named Carl Browne, was told by older friends that Santa was a fake. But Browne, a resident of Jolon in Monterey County, refused to disbelieve. He did, however, set out to try to find the truth. After all, how could Santa drive a sleigh  over sometimes snowless roads in California? Carl reasoned that if Santa was for real, he probably had to drive a stagecoach. The curious kid devised a plan to find out, once and  for all, if there was a Santa.

On a bitter cold Christmas Eve, after his parents had gone to bed, Carl quietly climbed out his bedroom window and cautiously  wandered down a dark path to a cluster of trees by the stagecoach road. There, bundled the best he could, the shivering lad settled  down to brave a cold winter night.

The evening passed ever so slowly—hour after hour—but finally his patience paid off. Carl thought he heard the faint sound of horses'  hooves beating down on the hard-pack dirt road. The sound grew louder and more distinct.

The pounding of hooves and his heart  thumped in increasing volume. Then, with the help of a full moon, Carl actually witnessed a stagecoach coming around the bend, pulled  by what his blurry eyes thought were reindeer and driven by a jolly chap fitting Santa's description. The stage thundered by the  excited lad and got smaller and smaller, finally disappearing out of view.

Carl leaped up from his lookout spot and raced home, where, panting, he burst into his parent's room, waking them up, then describing  what he had just seen. They all went over to their Christmas Tree and found a package for each underneath.

On Christmas Day, while a wide-eyed Carl was off telling his friends about the incident, his father walked down to the stage station  to thank the stagecoach driver for playing the part of Santa the night before.

"You are the fourth person to come in here this morning and thank me for playing Santa," the stagewhip said. "Look, I don't know what
went on last evening but there hasn't been a stagecoach on that road the past four nights!"