The day I met Kriss Kringle
Written by London McMinnThe snow was falling in big flakes. Picking up in speed as it fell. Oh, such beauty mother nature provided. I looked to the right and not a person in sight. I looked to the left and not a person in sight. Wondering where the other students were. It seem like time had stopped but the snow continue to fall. As I turn my head back to the right, there sitting on the bench next to me was a man.
This man dressed in a matter not of one would not be used to. He had on a long German hunter green colored coat trimmed with cotton like fur. Gold buttons down the front. And a gold twined rope tied around. His face was kind looking with a slight smile through his long gray and white mustache and beard. And his hat was the kind of hat that is told in the story of “The Night Before Christmas”, the night cap. It was the same color as his coat. He was holding a sack in his lap, also of the same color trimmed with a golden twined rope.
“Guten Tag. Wie geht es lhnen? Mein name ist Kriss Kringle”.
Confused look must have overcome my face because as fast as you can turn a light switch on he said, “Good Day. How are you? My name is Kriss Kringle”. I had heard the German Folk stories about the German “Santa Claus”. But to been sitting next to him. I was bewildered and a bit scared. Sensing this, this man who calls himself Kriss Kringle, continues to speak. “I come to bear you well wishes through this winter season. And tell you to place your shoes outside your door of the night before the first day of winter. Then I will fulfill those wishes with sweet goods”. Then he opened his sack and reaches. He pulls out a hand full of candy. He hands the candy to me. “Go home and tell your mother of this”, he says with a smile. I told him, “Thank you and I will”.
I got up from the bench and started down the pathway to my building. The snow still falling. I turned to look over my shoulder for one more glance of this man. But he was nowhere to be found. How could he have walked so fast up the path? Hummm.
I did tell my mother of the man. The siblings of my family did put our shoes out on the night before the first day of winter. Yes, the shoes were full on the first day of winter.
Presently, I proudly tell this story to all who will listen. And I tell this story to my own son, who wants to hear it every year. And I end the story proudly and with a big smile, “And that was the day I met Kriss Kringle”.