By Carol McCracken (Post # 1,667)
There were Barbie dolls and pudgy dolls. Remote control trucks, battery operated and child powered trucks. A baking oven and stuffed animals. These were just some of the Christmas presents that Mr. and Mrs. Claus delivered to over eighty children this afternoon at the annual Munjoy Mother’s Club Christmas party. The holiday party was begun years ago by Marie Trott who died two years ago. But many of her nine children have carried the tradition forward in her memory on Munjoy Hill where she lived.
“I’m from a family of nine kids. But there was always a foster child or homeless person with us for the holidays,” said Steve Trott, one of the organizers of the event today at the East End Community School on the Hill. “Mom is smiling down at us today.” Mom is Marie Trott, who started the event years ago and worked at the Maine Youth Center in SoPo.
Each child who sat on Santa’s lap was given an opportunty to tell him and Mrs. Claus just what he hoped for. Most of the requests were for dolls, bicycles, sleds, computer games and ice skates. One young lady asked for a pony, but came back later and told Mrs. Claus she’d changed her mind and wanted a dollhouse instead. Her family had no place to keep a pony she admitted. Each child received the next best gift from Santa along with a red felt stocking stuffed with other holiday goodies with lots of ho ho ho’s in between. Pizza and Pepsi were served courtesy of the 711 on Washington Avenue and Pepsi Company.
Chocolate chip cookies and milk are Santa’s favorite snack he told mhn. in an exclusive interview following the gift giving and ho ho ho’s. “It takes me about two months to recover from all the cookies children leave out for me,” he said winking. “But I wouldn’t trade them for anything.” Santa went on: “You know Rudolph is getting old. We might have to replace him sometime,” he said looking at Mrs. Claus sadly. “We have a couple of younger reindeer who might be good,” said Mrs. Claus trying to cheer Santa up. “What I need is a new heater though for the sleigh,” said Santa. “I’ll have to see what I can do about that myself I guess.”
“Some children don’t have chimneys on their houses. That used to be a problem,” said Santa winking and ho hoing at mhn. “But now we have a Magic Key that will open houses without a chimney,” said Mrs. Claus. “It sure makes gift giving a lot easier now. One year we used the Magic Key to deliver a canoe because we couldn’t get it down the chimney. That was a close one.”
“We have a very busy schedule, of course, every year. But we always make it a point to get to the Munjoy Mother’s Club just before Christmas because they do such a wonderful job for the children in the area,” said Mrs. Claus. With that they were off to feed the reindeer who were snorting and stomping their hoofs impatiently!
“Merry Christmas to all,” they said in unison as they left the East End Community School.