the north pole

The Waters kid’s Christmas Party is the best day of my year – I got to visit with over 250 kids; it was fabulous! — Santa “Jim” Clause

At the building where I work there is a grid of support columns labelled with letters and numbers. This makes it easy to find people because they can say something like, “I work on the second floor in the cube at Pole F95.” Pole F95 is at the northern edge of the building. Sitting in the cube on the second floor at Pole F95, or The North Pole as I like to call it, is a guy who dresses a little weird at this time of year.  I can always tell this time of year is coming when I see his beard growing longer.

At the company holiday parties each year hundreds of kids stand in line just for a chance to sit on his lap and tell him of their dreams. He refers to these parties as his favorite day of the year.  He truly enjoys bringing a little happiness and humor to the lives of all those kids.  He often stays long past the scheduled end of the party to ensure every child gets to sit with him and be photographed.

Those of us working with him sometimes have to struggle to remember to call him “Jim.”