The Christmas we found out how Santa gets into our house

Anna and John L Carton

Tuscumbia-My siblings and I grew up on an active dairy farm south of Tuscumbia Alabama.  Dad would get up early milk, bottle it and then head out on his milk route. In the afternoon, they would hit the fields, come home to milk the cows, and come in late, so we didn’t get to see much of my Dad.  It is rare that Alabama gets snow, much less a white Christmas, but one year in the early sixties we received snow on Christmas Eve!

Christmas morning we went out to play in the snow and there in the snow were two sled tracks, small hoof prints in between the tracks going across the yard stopping short of the basement door.  We also found Santa’s boot prints going to the door.  At last!! We found the answer how Santa got into our house without a chimney!  He came up through the floor furnace!

Many years later we found out that the boot prints were my Dad’s going to the basement to bring out a hidden merry go round.  It also explained the sled tracks as he was dragging it through the snow.  The hoof prints turned out to be the dogs following behind Dad. Our parents had spent half the night putting together the merry go round in the kitchen.  Mom had to get up early and cook Dad breakfast and then he had to go and milk over a hundred cows.