Thanking Globe Santa for brightening her childhood
Laura Dees grew up in Lowell and now lives in Berkeley, Calif., where she has worked in public relations and as an office manager. Throughout the 1970s and ’80s, Globe Santa brought gifts to her large family, and this year, unsolicited, she decided to write about it. “I think of Globe Santa every year,” she said.
After 12 years of trudging to school through the frozen, slippery, and biting cold neighborhoods of Lowell, I was more than ready to leave it all behind. So, in
1990, at the age of 20, I began a new life as a Californian.
I hate being cold, and there’s a good reason why. My parents were poor. Which meant I was poor. Which meant my whole family was poor. And being poor in Massachusetts in the winter is a guaranteed tough time.
My dad, a lanky-framed chain smoker, did local construction, and more often than not was under-employed. My mom stayed at home, chasing around six of us kids in her stretch pants — in multiple colors — purchased from a Sears catalogue. Working outside of the house was not an option for her during those early and demanding days of child-rearing.
The heating bill was an issue every year. The amount due on the bill would slowly creep up as our ability to pay it sank lower. Ultimately, the gas company would shut the heat off — usually after Christmas, but not before the coldest months of January and February. Every winter our hissing radiators abruptly went silent. We could no longer hang our jackets and mittens on them before school to soak up heat for our numbing morning walks.
With the gas turned off, we were left scrambling down the cellar stairs to retrieve an ancient electric stove. We’d haul it up to the kitchen and plunk it next to the non-functioning gas stove to boil water. Then we’d lug the scalding pot upstairs to our bathroom and dump the wahave ter into a mammoth clawfoot bathtub. This afforded each of us approximately 1 inch of water for a sponge bath.
Bedtime was particularly uncomfortable because of the bulky and cumbersome clothes we bundled ourselves in to avoid frostbite.
Ultimately, it was my younger brother David’s asthma that came to our rescue. After a few weeks of no heat in the house, he would inevitably develop a hoarse and nasty cough. A quick trip with him to the emergency room and my mom would secure a note from the doctor, ordering the heat to be turned back on. She’d then take it to the Lowell courthouse and get a court order for our heat to be restored. The gas company always relented, even though my parents could never pay the bill in full.
You may wonder what kind of Christmases we had under such dire financial circumstances?
Well, there was a fake tree, surrounded by a hodgepodge of recycled toys and clothes from Goodwill. There were visits from our church congregants who brought brown grocery bags filled with donated canned goods. We kids would all scatter when they came to the house. maybe because we were embarrassed and didn’t like anyone feeling sorry for us.
And always, there was a large brown box delivered just in time for Christmas from somebody named Globe Santa. The gifts were unpacked, wrapped, and placed under the tree. Something for each of us: Books, board games, even the occasional electronic device, like coveted walkie talkies, that delighted us all year round.
Until it arrived, my mother would fret it might not make it on time. I’d often hear her say anxiously “Globe Santa hasn’t come yet.” I thought she was talking about Santa Claus, the guy in the sleigh who circled the globe. (“Duh,” I’d think. Of course he hasn’t come yet — it wasn’t Christmas Eve.)
It wasn’t until I was about 10 and discovered an unopened large brown box tucked away in a closet just before Christmas that I realized Globe Santa wasn’t the real Santa.
I opened the box out of curiosity and found a letter written by my mom and addressed to Globe Santa. It listed the number of kids in our family (6), our ages (8-18) and genders (3 boys, 3 girls). She told of her financial woes in excruciating detail, including my dad’s lack of work and her reliance on state welfare services to help feed and clothe her children. It must have been humiliating for her to retell this story year after year, begging for help.
From as far back as I can remember she would mention Globe Santa reverently, and how if he didn’t come, we wouldn’t a “good Christmas.”
I’m 54 now, and somehow, I’ve been lucky enough as an adult to have sufficient financial resources to make each Christmas a spectacular blowout for my son, who is now 12.
Each year, he’s had magical Christmas mornings filled with a mountain of wrapped packages and a bulging Christmas stocking filled to the brim with goodies. I wonder if he appreciates it, or if he just takes it for granted? Likely, it’s a little bit of both. Either way, I’m relieved. I can’t imagine the stress of being unable to provide this memory and simple comfort for him.
But I still think about Globe Santa every year, and about the kids, like myself, who would be gift-less were it not for this program. Gifts like the doll in the green dress I received one year – my favorite Globe Santa present by far. It was a display doll dressed in a grand ball gown. A Scarlett O’Hara, “Gone With the Wind” kind of doll. It made me feel special and a little like a princess myself as I stared at it night after night before falling asleep.
Kids should never suffer through a Christmas without magic because of grown-up circumstances beyond their control.
I guess I’m writing this as a thank you to Globe Santa. You made my Christmas as a poor kid in Lowell a little brighter than it would have been otherwise.
I hope Globe Santa continues to deliver brown boxes of toys to families in need because it matters. To the kids and their parents. When you’re a kid and are sensing the grown-up stress of paying bills and buying groceries, Christmas should be a day off. A tiny vacation from feeling less than and not having enough, to one filled with joy and the promise of what could be.
For 68 years Globe Santa, a program of the Boston Globe Foundation, has provided gifts to children in need at holiday time. Please consider giving by phone, mail, or online at globesanta.org.