Visiting Santa

I remember visiting Santa when we were young in his little red house with white trim around the roof, windows, and door and a small, wood porch on the front. It was about the size of a small playhouse - enough room for his big chair, a black bucket with mini candy canes. and a little table. The little red house originally was located at the back of the lumber yard and later moved to a place on the way out of town (that I thought was totally random as it wasn't really associated with a business, but I was older then so I didn't care as much).

I don't ever remember waiting in line to see Santa - we usually just walked up and sat on his lap (Paradise wasn't a very big town and was mostly retired people so there weren't tons of kids). I also don't remember telling him what I wanted for Christmas, but I'm sure I did because I remember going through the catalogs to mark the pages with things that looked promising.

I do remember thinking how cool it was to see Santa. And I loved getting a candy cane. I feel bad that kids these days don't get a candy cane - that seems like the quintessential thing to get from Santa! Christmas as a child would not have been complete without a visit to Santa and his cute, red house.

This isn't the exact house, but pretty close to what I remember. Ahh, the memories!!