{"id":385,"date":"2007-12-25T11:07:40","date_gmt":"2007-12-25T17:07:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/index.php\/2007\/12\/25\/i-saw-a-real-santa\/"},"modified":"2007-12-26T16:37:56","modified_gmt":"2007-12-26T22:37:56","slug":"i-saw-a-real-santa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/12\/i-saw-a-real-santa\/","title":{"rendered":"I Saw a Real Santa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Taking a note from a weekend column<\/a>, I spent an hour at Northwest Arkansas Mall, about 4:30 to about 5:30, on Christmas Eve, to enjoy the crowds without being a part of them, (Phil’s father in the essay, having gifts all bought, enjoyed the spectacle), though if something caught my eye for My Beloved, I’d grab it.<\/p>\n

Despite being a weekday and despite all the reports on Christmas retail health, it was not crowded though the mall would close at 6, and the displays did not inspire me to impulse, not even the last-minute sale tables. Little seemed picked over; on most Christmas Eves one sees a fair number of empty shelves. Either this season inventory was better planned or fewer needless items were bought by shoppers. (Needless? Virtually nothing sold at a mall is a necessity. That’s not a criticism. Frills are fun but frills are frills.)<\/p>\n

I stopped in Gloria Jean’s, a franchise espresso shop. While looking at tea accessories, the mall’s Santa Claus came in. For coffee? No, but it was obviously a break for him, to chat with a couple of young clerks behind one of the counters.<\/p>\n

This Santa had real whiskers and a kind face (Young readers, this was not the Real Santa!). He seemed like a good guy. Walking to another display I saw this man actually was slender: The red pants flapped loosely against skinny legs. This man was old but by his breathing and his gait showed excellent health.<\/p>\n

Then a woman and her two little girls came in. She was there for a coffee. All their clothes were more Wal-Mart than Dillard’s and a little faded from a number of washings. The younger girl spotted Santa in a split second, and she ran to him. He instantly crouched a little and asked how she was. (Not whether she’d been good and what she wanted.) With a white-gloved forefinger he touched her tummy in a gentle grandfatherly way. She grinned and ran back to Momma.<\/p>\n

The older girl held back and silently looked to her mom for permission. When she got the nod, she walked deliberately to the man, and he scooped her up in a hug. Exactly the right thing to do. This girl giggled, and the mitzvah was done. I teared up from the sincerity and spontaneity of it.<\/p>\n

Christmas is a multi-religious (not merely multi-denominational) secular holiday for the Western world. It is for children, adults secondary, while they’re young enough to believe in Santa. He’s not Mr. Moneybags with toys: He threatens children if they’re naughty. Santa’s magic is to be absolutely constant as parents only can try to be. Unconditional love actually is quite a trick. -30-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Taking a note from a weekend column, I spent an hour at Northwest Arkansas Mall, about 4:30 to about 5:30, on Christmas Eve, to enjoy the crowds without being a part of them, (Phil’s father in the essay, having gifts all bought, enjoyed the spectacle), though if something caught my eye for My Beloved, I’d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brick-bats-reportage"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":99,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2005\/11\/what-killed-downtown-and-when\/","url_meta":{"origin":385,"position":0},"title":"What killed downtown? And when?","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"November 18, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Friday, Nov. 18, 2005: What happened to the Mall? I thought the Mall is what destroyed Downtown, not Wal-Mart. The latest batch of Wal-Mart-bashing ignores the history of American retail. I don't know this history in a scholarly way, only that portion I've lived. So\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Culture"","block_context":{"text":"American Culture","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/american-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":318,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/05\/twin-double-feature\/","url_meta":{"origin":385,"position":1},"title":"Twin Double-Feature","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"May 22, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Scott Shackelford wrote a thoughtful column for today's Northwest Arkansas Times, about a possibility we Ozarkers should make a pitch for: A cinema specializing in small films. Malco Theatres Inc., which has a number of multiplexes in the area, is building a 12-screener in Fayetteville just down from Northwest Arkansas\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Body, Home, Street"","block_context":{"text":"Body, Home, Street","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/body-home-street\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":239,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/10\/promenade-lemonade-cynical-pinnacle\/","url_meta":{"origin":385,"position":2},"title":"Promenade Lemonade: Cynical Pinnacle?","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"October 6, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"PROM-E-NADE -- The Pinnacle Hills Promenade Shopping Center opened Wednesday. Wanting to see the center, not the artifice of ribbon-cutting, and crowds that won't be that big until the day after Thanksgiving, I'm here for an hour Thursday afternoon. Background here and here. Forget this joint on bustling weekends, too.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Body, Home, Street"","block_context":{"text":"Body, Home, Street","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/body-home-street\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":227,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/08\/dont-raze-the-razorback\/","url_meta":{"origin":385,"position":3},"title":"Don’t Raze the Razorback","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"August 7, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Construction has proceeded enough at the site of a new movie complex in Fayetteville to be obvious that we'll have more screens -- and stadium seating just down the street -- before too long. It's on Joyce Boulevard west of the Wal-Mart and on the same side of the street.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Body, Home, Street"","block_context":{"text":"Body, Home, Street","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/body-home-street\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4072,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2013\/01\/sofa-so-good\/","url_meta":{"origin":385,"position":4},"title":"Sofa, So Good","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"January 8, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Guardian Angels of Mercy II: Around 3:30 p.m. Monday 7 January 2013, I'm driving my wife and our two dogs in the Prius north on I-540 for coffee at a new place then a dog-walk. We're a mile south of \"Guardian Angels of Mercy I,\" north of Fulbright Expressway (mall\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Body, Home, Street"","block_context":{"text":"Body, Home, Street","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/body-home-street\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":383,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/12\/dim-these-bulbs\/","url_meta":{"origin":385,"position":5},"title":"Dim These Bulbs?","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"December 18, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The Demzette reported Monday that the downtown Fayetteville annual Christmas lights this year cost $93,884. The little city foresees budget problems in 2008, and this certainly looks expendable. Of course it is. Twinkly lights as opposed to road repair and police patrols? It's a wonder it's lasted this long without\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Brick Bats Reportage"","block_context":{"text":"Brick Bats Reportage","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/brick-bats-reportage\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}