White Static Santa
by Richard

It was Christmas Eve， 1976. I was about six years old， eagerly waiting for Christmas Day to arrive. As all children do， I couldn’t really sleep that well in the expectation of what interesting things lay in wait under the tree.

I grew up in an apartment in Brooklyn， and my parents had fashioned the one large room into two rooms with partitions. In order to fit the Christmas tree there， though， they had removed the partitions that separated my room from the living room. I had asked them to leave the tree lights turned on， so they obliged. Perhaps helping contribute to my sleeplessness， I had a full-on view from my bed of the tree all lit up in glowing splendor.

Anyway， I distinctly remember trying to go to sleep. I may have even fallen asleep， but then for whatever reason I awoke. As I opened my eyes I was riveted to the scene. I saw something bending over the presents. It was a short figure about one or two feet tall and composed entirely of what I can only describe as white noise (the kind of static you get on an analog TV， for a channel that has no signal). It just stood there， motionless. It was quite clearly there to my recollection. However， when I rubbed my eyes to address an itch， the figure had disappeared. I waited awake for a little while to see if the figure would come back， but it never did. Whatever it was， perhaps I’m one of the few people who actually can claim to have seen a real "Santa Claus."