The Night I Saw Santa’s Sleigh Tracks

Still to this day, it always seems that I get sick during the holidays, especially when I was a child. I’ll never forget the year my mom had to rush me to the emergency room on Christmas Eve. This is my story of when I found that Santa was really real.

I was only in second grade (if I remember correctly) and I had gotten sick with a very bad sore throat. My nose was stuffed up, my head pounded and my throat so swollen, I couldn’t breathe. The night of Christmas eve, I remember sitting up in bed because that was the only way I could breathe. When my body started to relax as I fell asleep, I would jolt myself awake because my throat would feel even more closed up, preventing me to breathe. I was so scared that I wanted to cry, but I couldn’t. It was around midnight when I got out of bed and went downstairs. The whole time I sat up in bed, not being able to sleep, I couldn’t stop thinking about not being able to get out of bed in case Santa was near our house. I surely didn’t want to be the one to ruin Christmas because I got out of bed. I took my chances and got up anyway. My parents were still up and looked very busy. I’m sure my face showed my disappointment when I noticed the bare space under the Christmas tree. I was really hoping Santa had come so I would have bragging rights over my sisters that I got to see the presents first. With my disappointment aside, my parents decided that I needed to visit the emergency room so my mom took me.

The night was clear and there were stars in the sky. There were no other cars on the road and the town seemed to be fast asleep. Part of me kept wanting to look up in the sky to see if Santa was up there but had I felt so bad, I didn’t care. When all of a sudden, my mom slammed on the breaks and shrieked, “look!” Across the road as we were driving by, I saw very large sleigh tracks leading up to the house right in front of us. All of a sudden, my throat didn’t seem to bother me as much. The excitement of Christmas was getting my heart racing.

As we were in the emergency room, one of the nurses said that Santa was walking around the hallways but I never did get to see him. We left, went back home and again found myself a little disappointed that there were still no presents under the tree. But I eagerly went to bed, knowing that Santa was right around the corner. I couldn’t tell you what my Christmas was like that year, being so sick. All I remember was those sleigh tracks and the excitement that Santa was flying somewhere right over my head.


People also view

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *