True story!

My cousin lives in Arkansas and also works at a retail shop.  One day, an older gentleman came by the store.  He was wearing red suspenders and looked suspiciously like this guy:

She asked him if he would be willing to come back the next day and let her bring her children to meet him.  He said he would love to!  The one thing her daughter wanted for Christmas was a sleigh bell a la The Polar Express, so she said she was going to go to the local jeweler and see what they had.  She’d been looking everywhere, but couldn’t find a sleigh bell that was decent.

He said he would like to go with her and purchase the bell for her as a gift.  She tried to refuse, but he insisted.  He followed her in his red pickup truck (seriously, I couldn’t make that up if I tried), but the jewlery store didn’t have anything worthwhile.  They finally settled on a small silver handbell thing and had it engraved with her name on it.  Mr. Santa Man paid for it, still against my cousin’s objections.

The next day, he came back decked out in his Santa gear.  When it came time to do gifts for the kids, he said he had something extra special for Anne Marie.  He pulled out a box and in it was a true sleigh bell, still attached to a section of leather harness.  The underside of the leather was worn from use.

As you can imagine, everyone was in shock.  As far as I know, no one has seen him since. 

I’ve actually seen the bell and if it doesn’t make you believe, I don’t know what would. 

I’d love to write a children’s picture book based on this story, but seeing as though I have so many strikes against me (debut author/children’s picture book/holiday theme), I don’t think it’s really plausible.  Maybe one day!

Merry Christmas!