In Christmas 2025, Santa Is a Tired Old Man. I am now part of that demographic commonly known as the elderly. I have very fond memories of Christmas from when my children were just young’uns. My wife and I raised three daughters, and those early Christmas holidays were magical, and insane (thanks to me). Christmas in 2025, not so much. Santa Is a Tired Old Man
Allow me to explain. To my mind, Christmas is for the children. Our daughters are all grown up, and we do not have any grandchildren. Therefore, during this holiday season my mind is focused on Christmas in the 1980’s and 1990’s when our daughters were little. When I allow my mind to go there, I feel great joy, and fatigue. I was apparently a crazy person back then (my wife would argue that nothing has changed, but that’s for another blog). Santa Is a Tired Old Man
I grew up poor, had a reasonably successful career, and therefore I could provide more for my children than I had growing up. The problem was my definition of ‘more’. We adopted our first daughter in 1984. When she was four, I lost my mind. In the 80’s and 90’s, I became familiar with the local ToysRUs stores, and I quickly became acquainted with most of their checkout clerks on a first name basis. Santa Is a Tired Old Man
I remember my first visit to ToysRUs, I think it was 1989. My wife made the mistake of letting me go toy shopping alone. I did a quick walk through the store, a sort of reconnaissance mission. Then I grabbed a shopping cart and got busy. So many wonderful toys, Christmas music blaring throughout the store, brightly colored decorations everywhere, and a crazy man with his first daughter. This was not a good combination. Santa Is a Tired Old Man
When I walked up to the checkout counter with three shopping carts entirely filled with toys, the clerk looked at me quizzically. “How many children do you have?”, she asked. “One four-year-old daughter”, I replied. She happily rang me up, and to this day I hope she got some kind of bonus. It was a lot of work. Santa Is a Tired Old Man
It was a good thing we had a minivan at the time. A sedan wouldn’t have held everything. When I arrived home, my wife walked out to the van, looked in the back, and looked at me quizzically. “Are you out of your mind?”, she asked. “What do you mean?”, I replied. She kindly helped me haul all the toys into the house and wrap and hide them while our four-year-old was napping. We took great joy in keeping Santa Claus alive for all three of our daughters for as long as possible.” Santa Is a Tired Old Man
I must admit that was a strange Christmas. When Santa came that year, the presents extended from under the tree in the living room all the way into the dining room. Our four-year-old’s eyes really lit up when she saw all those presents. She started opening them, and opening them, and after the first hour she started to cry because she was worn out. So, my wife put her down for a nap. Then she woke up and finished unwrapping. Santa Is a Tired Old Man
I’m guessing she played with each of those toys at least once, probably no more than that. There were so many. She didn’t appear to even like the battery driven remote sports car. So, after she crashed it a couple of times, I took that one away from her and played with it myself. (You will probably be pleased to hear that I am still ashamed of that). Santa Is a Tired Old Man
Two years later we adopted a second daughter, and as she grew older with each Christmas the presents spread further and further from the tree into the adjoining rooms. The local ToysRUs put my photo up on their wall. And I continued to buy more and more presents each year. I couldn’t stop. I became addicted to buying Christmas presents. Santa Is a Tired Old Man
My wife tried to slow me down. She went to ToysRUs with me and tried to put limits on me. But I was like a runaway freight train. She feared I would run her over with one of the shopping carts filled to the brim with toys and maim her. So, she finally gave up and just went along. Santa Is a Tired Old Man
By the time our third daughter showed up, five years after the second, Christmas had gotten so far out of hand it was ridiculous. It got so when I showed up at ToysRUs, the checkout clerks would all go hide. It wore them out just checking out the four or five shopping carts full of toys that I had filled. Santa Is a Tired Old Man
I must confess, as I got older, buying all those toys, hauling them home, and wrapping them also began to wear me out. Our finished basement became filled with mostly unused toys. On the positive side, when I went downstairs with my daughters to play, we almost always had something new to try out. The basement looked like Santa’s workshop had exploded. Santa Is a Tired Old Man
The other thing that I remember is that at some point almost all the good toys ran on batteries. There were double A batteries, triple A batteries, nine-volt batteries. I think that for a couple of those years I spent more on batteries than I did on toys. And God forbid I forgot to buy the appropriate batteries for each toy. It’s no fun at all getting a toy for Christmas that just sits there because Santa forgot to provide the batteries. No cookies and milk for Santa that year. Santa Is a Tired Old Man
The good news is that we did have a lot of fun. That finished basement was filled with nerf bats, nerf guns, a giant plastic jungle gym, an electric car, and lots of other fun stuff. I spent many hours with my daughters, sword fighting with nerf bats, shooting each other with nerf balls, and playing troll where I hid under the slide of the jungle gym and tried to grab them as they went down. Santa Is a Tired Old Man
I guess the truth is that at Christmas, I got to be both the father and a little kid as we all played together with the new toys. All I know is that whenever I remember Christmas from back then, my daughters, and that basement full of toys, it makes me smile from ear to ear. Santa Is a Tired Old Man
Now they’re all grown up, I am elderly, and Santa has become a tired old man. I still enjoy Christmas, and usually at least one of my grown daughters comes to visit. We still eat too much good food, play board games, watch TV, take walks, and mostly nap. But I really do miss all those Christmases when I got down on the floor and played with all those toys with them. Now, if I get down on the floor, it’s to take a nap. And it takes me ten minutes to get back up again. Come to think of it, I don’t know where my wife and I got the energy to both have jobs, raise three daughters, and have such exhausting Christmas holidays. Santa Is a Tired Old Man
Maybe that’s why I feel so tired this Christmas season. Or maybe it’s because my batteries are running down. I sure hope Santa doesn’t forgot to provide me with the appropriate batteries that I need to keep me going this year. I still need some energy to read my adult daughters ‘The Night Before Christmas’ over the phone on Christmas Eve. The youngest is now 32, and they still all insist. Good times. Santa Is a Tired Old Man
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR! And if you need a last-minute Christmas gift for one of your loved ones that likes to laugh, you might consider giving them one of my comedy mysteries. For more information and links to buy them on Amazon, go to https://johnjjessop.com/