Don’t forget that this Sunday we’ll be volunteering at New York Children’s hospital’s Christmas Extravaganza! The event starts at noon and will run until 4:00 p.m. We’ll be decorating gingerbread cookies, making snow globes, and other holiday crafts. There will also be a donation box for toys!

I hope to see everyone there!

Yours truly,

O. Langley

Social Media Intern & Santa’s Executive Helper

Loveridge & McGowan International

98 W 52nd St, New York, NY 10019

[email protected]

* * *

“Do you really know Santa?”

“Of course I do.” It’s the easiest lie I’ve ever told. I sound very convincing. Well, as convincing as a woman with finger puppets on her hand can sound.

“Tell us a secret only Santa would know,” a little boy decked out in snowman pajamas says.

I gasp and clutch my chest. Rudolph and Mrs. Claus fall off my fingers. I hope it doesn’t traumatize the group of children sitting on the floor around me.

“I can’t tell you Santa’s secrets,” I say before lowering my voice into a whisper. “I’ll end up on the Naughty List.”

He purses his lips at me as if he’s giving my statement some good thought. Maybe I’m not convincing at all.

But then the girl next him nudges his side. “If she tells us, we might end up on the Naughty List too.”

Children have the best logic.

The little boy taps his index finger to his lips, clearly pondering his friend’s statement. Eventually he shrugs.

“Yeah, you’re right. Can I have your finger puppets?”

I laugh and pluck an elf and a penguin from my ring finger and pinky while he scoops up the two that fell on the floor. I leave the kids to create their own show.

The playroom of the New York Children’s hospital is glittering with green, red, and gold tinsel. Candy cane and snowman decals cling to the walls, gaggles of blindfolded children play pin the ornament on the tree and pin the candle to the menorah. I smile when they fumble over each other. Their laughter is exactly the medicine the doctor ordered. I know what it’s like being stuck in a hospital room throughout the holidays. If I can make it a little better for them, then that’s a Chrismukkah miracle in itself.

“Look at that angel!” I glance over the shoulder of a little girl with a pink crayon in her hand.

“She’s a rebel,” Emanuel says as he colors in his picture of a sleigh. “Dominique and I decided that angels should be able to color their hair pink too.”

“And she’s got purple streaks!” Dominique says.

“She certainly does,” I laugh. “She really pulls them off too.”

“Manny says he’s gonna hang this up in his office.”

I squeeze Emanuel’s shoulders. “Maybe we can get a few more.”