Local kids talk Santa

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Gabe Surprenant --
Maggie Sample --
Odin Nelson --
Shaylee McDonald --
Haven Dragoon --
Lucas Hemingway --
Audrianna Hollister --
P-R Photo/Gabe Dickens Experts on Santa Claus from Mooers Elementary School, including Marcus Bedard (shown here), were happy to share their take on the man in red with Press-Republican readers. Catch video shot by Gabe Dickens with their sincere, heartwarming and sometimes hilarious observations with this story at www.pressrepublican.com. --
Calli Fitzwater --

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December 22, 2012

Local kids talk Santa

'There's a lot of kids, and they want toys'

By ASHLEIGH LIVINGSTON Press-Republican The Press Republican Sun Dec 23, 2012, 12:02 AM EST

MOOERS — Lucas Hemingway is certain that Santa Claus is aware of his desire for a four-wheeler this Christmas.

Why? Because the second-grader’s father told Santa himself.

“My dad knows him,” said the Mooers Elementary School student.

But children whose parents aren’t best buds with Santa need not worry that the jolly old elf doesn’t know what they’re wishing for, according to third-grader Odin Nelson, who also attends the school, “cause he’s always watching us.”

The Press-Republican recently asked Lucas, Odin and some of their schoolmates to share with us what they know about Mr. Claus and his helpers.

Here’s what we found out:

Santa lives at the North Pole, and in order to get there, said third-grader Haven Dragoon, “you go through a couple continents.”

While Old St. Nick generally travels to and from his home in a sleigh, according to Maggie Sample, there is another way to get there.

“You could drive there, too,” said the third-grader.

Odin, however, advises against driving to the North Pole.

“You can get there by a car, but I don’t know if I would travel out there with a car, though, ‘cause it would probably freeze,” he said. “You’d probably have a lot of problems going because it would be so cold ‘cause the motor would end up freezing or something.”

‘BREAKS UP FOG’

Also living at the North Pole are elves, whose job it is, Gabe Surprenant said, to make toys.

“There’s a lot of kids, and they want toys, so the elves have to make toys for them because if he (Santa) was all alone, it would take for a long time to do it,” said the second-grader.

Besides, Lucas noted, Santa is too busy to make the toys himself.

“He needs to do other stuff like check his list to see if the boys and girls are bad or nice,” he said.

Yet another resident of the North Pole is Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer.

According to second-grader Calli Fitzwater, Rudolph’s nose is red “because it’s just one of those different personalities, and if Santa needed him on a really dark, foggy night that wasn’t really good, his nose would break up the fog so they could go.”

The reindeer, Odin explained, was born with a red nose, although Rudolph’s father wasn’t very happy about it.

“His father tried to put a black cap over it so it wouldn’t glow … ‘cause he didn’t want to be the father with his son that had a red nose,” he said.

‘A LOT OF KITCHENS’

In order to spot Santa’s house at the North Pole, one should be on the look out for an igloo, according to Shaylee McDonald.

“It looks like a penguin’s house,” the second-grader said.

Odin, however, pointed out that Santa’s home would have to be quite large “because he has to fit all those elves in it, and he’d have to have, like, a lot of kitchens to feed the elves.”

And Lucas imagines that St. Nick’s house is “probably, like, nice and cozy because he has his fireplace going, and Mrs. Claus is probably making cookies.”

But whatever the size or shape of Santa’s home, “he probably has a recliner,” said Audrianna Hollister.

After all, the third-grader noted, Santa needs to relax after a hard day’s work.

‘SOMEWHERE WARM’

When Santa really wants to get away, though, he probably takes a vacation to “somewhere warm for once — maybe Barbados or Florida,” Haven said.

Calli agreed that, from time to time, St. Nick might seek out a warmer climate than the North Pole has to offer.

“I would think he would go to, like, a beach or come and visit people that had not had a lot of stuff, that are poor and stuff like that,” she said.

Email Ashleigh Livingston: alivingston@pressrepublican.com

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Local kids talk Santa

'There's a lot of kids, and they want toys'

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