Santa Claus Parade

I was watching the news on television the other night when the announcer talked about the upcoming Santa Claus Parade. Oh, I got so excited! I wanted to see Santa so bad. I had a bone to pick with him and this would be the perfect time to do it.

That Saturday morning, I got up early and dressed in layers of warm clothing. Nothing was going to stop me from going to see Santa, nothing at all.

I got to the parade very early that day and stood at the edge of the road, waiting and waiting. While I was waiting, I looked around at the downtown streets of Kamloops, BC. There were tons of people at the parade, both young and old. It was a beautiful day for a parade. It wasn’t too cold and it had just snowed out the night before.

It seemed like a long wait, but finally the parade started. Every float that went by, I searched it from top to bottom to see if I’d find Santa. I couldn’t see him at all. The floats went by, the horses went by and so did the marching bands. I could not see Santa and I was starting to get a little agitated.

Finally, I saw something red, way off in the distance. I waited, holding my breath. As the float got closer to me, I realized it wasn’t Santa. I was so disappointed. More floats went by, more horses went by and then more marching bands went by.

Almost forty-five minutes after the parade started, I saw something in the distance and this time I knew it was Santa. I rushed through the crowd and to my delight, Santa’s float stopped right beside me.

“Santa,” I yelled. “You know who I am and you know what I want!”

Santa turned and looked at me with a twinkle in his eye.

“Ho! Ho! Ho!” he shouted. “And I saw you step on that poor little kitten.”

“But I didn’t mean it!” I cried. “It was an accident. He was in my way!”

“Well,” said Santa. “You go home right now and be good from this moment until Christmas morning and we’ll see about that digital camera.”

I left the parade with my head hung low. Christmas morning was still a whole month away. How was I ever going to be good for a whole month. I wanted that digital camera so bad, but I was thinking that maybe I didn’t want it that badly. However, the more I thought about it, the more determined I got to be good.

Each day that went by, for the next month, I struggled between good and evil and I would always have the digital camera in my mind when I was tempted to do bad. I was able to defeat evil and I ended up making the right decisions. I was so good for that month, that even my friends saw a difference in me.

“Why don’t you want to come out with us?” they would ask.

“Because me and Santa have a deal,” I said.

“And you believe in that fat old man,” they would tease.

“Yes,” I said. “I do and he promised me that I would get a digital camera on Christmas morning if I was good until Christmas morning.”

Christmas morning came. I rushed downstairs and was shocked to see that there was nothing under my Christmas tree! I was so angry that I purposely wanted to do something bad, but then I thought that Santa was testing me, so I decided that I would be good that whole day as well. That evening, my parents came by with some presents for me.

“It looks like Santa Claus left something at our place for you,” said my dad, handing me a gift-wrapped parcel.

“I was good this whole day for nothing,” I said, angrily.

I tore the wrapping off the package and was shocked at what I saw. Inside was a digital camera, but it wasn’t the digital camera I wanted, it was an even better one!

“Boy,” I said. “I’m glad I didn’t give in and be bad today.”