When Christmas is Challenging

Sometimes Holidays are difficult. A long-time college coach and teacher in his “real” life, Charley Santa brings experience and sensitivity to help you think through ways a visit from or talk with Santa can help smooth the difficulties over and find space for the love and joy of the season.

Some of the holiday challenges Charley Santa has helped families with include:

• A young son recovering from open heart surgery in a hospital completely across the country from home, who just needed to know that Christmas was still coming to him in Boston instead of on the west coast, that things were fine at home, and that he was still on the Good List. All fears were assuaged and yes, L. was still very much a good boy.

• A family where Dad had recently moved out, to lots of sadness, and both daughters needed to be assured that Santa still thought Dad was a good man, even if Mom and Dad were no longer together, and that they’d get to spend time with both parents for Christmas. Assurances were given, and we talked about what they could do to show each parent how much they loved them. (Art projects were a good answer). Christmas was joyful, even while it was sad, as the family figured out how to still be family.

• Grief can make Christmas quite hard for everyone, but particularly for an only daughter whose father had died suddenly earlier in the year. Working with mom, Charley Santa brought a special gift, a ring that A. could wear and touch it whenever she wanted, to know Dad’s love lived on in her heart. A. still wears it years later on occasion, now a teenager on the brink of being a young adult. She still likes to talk to Charley when she visits New York, even though he’s no longer simply Santa.

Santa Charley never charges for these special situations.

Please reach out to us if a specially thought-through Zoom or Meeting with Santa would help you this holiday season.

We do, however, welcome support for this work, and thank those who have supported our ability to meet these needs by sponsoring these visits.

If you would be interested in underwriting this, or if you know of a family that could use this support, please contact us, and we’ll be glad to think it all through.