Christmas – what a joyful time of giving. My family takes this very seriously, and there is barely a person that does not join in the fun of giving. I myself received several presents this Christmas – a lot to be exact.

But the greatest joy by far was for me to see the joy in my children’s eyes when Santa Claus showed up at our house on Christmas Evening (here in Norway, we celebrate Christmas on the 24th).

A few days ago, my two boys (aged 3 and 5) had sent a Christmas wish list to Santa in the mail. The eldest wrote it and then handed it to Grandma to put in the mail. It read something like this:

Dear Santa,

What we want for Christmas:

  • A magic wand
  • A fart cushion
  • A top hat (magician’s hat)
  • A fire truck bunk bed

All the best,
Alexander and Adrian

My husband and I took up the challenge to try and fulfill their wish list, so we decided to play Santa for them this Christmas.

And so two days later, they got back a letter in the mail. The letter, addressed from Santa, stated that he had received their wish list and hoped that he would make it on time to deliver their presents. Upon reading the letter, they were ecstatic! They were super-excited and couldn’t wait for Christmas Eve to come.

After some research, we discovered that buying a fire truck bed was not as complicated as we thought. So we ordered one and received it in time, but soon realized that the assembly process turned out to be the most difficult part.

We wanted to keep it a surprise for the boys, so we could only start construction on the eve of the 23rd after they had gone to bed. We allowed them to sleep in our room so that we could start the assembly process in theirs.

Easier said than done, though. After opening all the boxes and starting the assembly process, we discovered that 3 important parts were missing! And it was now too late to find replacements – 11pm to be exact. We were sad and discouraged at the same time, and did not know what to do.

Finally my husband got an idea. He put on his handyman hat and went down to the garage to fix some custom parts that would do the trick. About one hour later, the parts were finished and we could continue the assembly process.

It was getting late, though, and we were getting extremely tired. But the vision of surprising our boys kept us moving forward. At 2:30am on the 24th, we were finally finished and ready to go to bed. Even though we worked so hard, I think that we were the ones looking forward to the next day the most.

Since it is our custom to only give out presents after dinner with the family on the eve of the 24th, we had to keep the boys out of their rooms the entire day. Some feat, believe me! Finally dinnertime arrived and we all engaged in cheerful chatter and discussions around a delicious Christmas meal.

Afterwards, Santa Claus showed up at the house with a magic wand, fart cushion, and a top hat, and even some additional gifts. But no bunk bed…

And so, just before bedtime that evening, the boys got a call. It was Santa. He said that he had forgotten to give them their last present. He left it in their room and forgot to tell them about it. He then bid goodbye and hung up.

You could feel the excitement in the room as the boys’ faces lit up! They ran up the stairs and straight to their room. Finally, they discovered it. Oh, how joyful the expression on their faces were. You should have seen it!

The boy’s reaction was worth every long-lasting hour of work that my husband and I had put in the previous night. I could not help but burst out with joy when I watched the boys falling asleep that night, clothed in their brand new fireman pajamas, and a big, beautiful, sincere smile on each face.