Santa Claus

The mall no longer has a monopoly on access to Santa Claus — he was just a click away Saturday. Parents and kids skipped the lines and stayed home to talk and interact with the big guy live from the North Pole during a live webinar. Old Saint Nick partnered with InstantPresenter, a Huntington Beach-based business that does online meeting and presentation services, to put on the event. Santa and his head elf Winky answered questions kids asked live, told riddles and sang a song.

The mighty Tyrannosaurus Rex guards the entry, wagging his monstrous tail, while a much more gentle giant, a Brontosaurus, bends down to lift his head again with a leaf in his mouth. These extinct favorites are the first sights that greet visitors to the Boeing Huntington Beach Holiday D'Lights presentation. The mile-long holiday festival of lights featuring animated light displays costs $5 and benefits 10 local schools and foundations in Huntington, Fountain Valley, Newport Beach, Costa Mesa, Tustin and Westminster.

Eron Ben-Yehuda Santa Claus comes only once a year, but Huntington Beach resident Hope Orta sees him about 2,000 times. She guesses that's how many likenesses of Old St. Nick she has collected over the last 40 years. "We stopped counting when we got to 1,800," she said. A chubby face smiles back at you almost anywhere you look in her home. There are figurines, dolls and toys showing Santa doing everything from delivering mail, to playing piano, to surfing.

Lost to many in the holiday bustle between Thanksgiving Day and Christmas is the Feast of St. Nicholas. I discovered the feast in Germany a number of years before I took the Christian faith as my own. It is celebrated in churches Dec. 5, the eve of the feast. And in a more folklore-like fashion, it is celebrated in German homes where children wait with flushed-faced anticipation for the arrival of St. Nicholas. The saint is remembered for living out the Scripture, “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father Who is in heaven.

FAMILY STATUS: Married 28 1/2 years. Two sons, one of whom is 21 and a junior at West Point. The other is 16 and a junior at Fountain Valley High School. AGE: 48 PAST OFFICES HELD: Membership chairwoman of the West Point Parents Club, Orange County Chapter; Fountain Valley High School Football Boosters secretary; past boosters assessment chairwoman; past board member of Orange County Fire Chiefs Assn. Overachievers Committee EXPLAIN YOUR JOB: Coordinate, initiate, facilitate, organize, oversee, answer phones and handle correspondence, as well as "mother" 33 firefighters.

Will Santa Claus cancel Christmas? He just might at the Huntington Beach Playhouse next week. For three days -- Tuesday through Thursday -- the playhouse will present its annual children's Christmas show, "Cancel Christmas," by Huntington Beach playwright Sam Younghans. It'll be staged with music composed by Paula Samonte under the direction of Chris Grisey. A troupe of young actors from the Orange County area will comprise the cast of this fantasy -- in which the evil troll King Bogwig of the North orders Santa to cancel Christmas.

When I was a child, Christmas was my very favorite time of the year. I come from a large family -- four sisters and three brothers -- and I am the youngest, and as some siblings would say, the most spoiled. So the holidays around our house were always full of hustle and bustle, and I enjoyed every minute of them. My fondest memory was when I was about 4 or 5 years old, and my father's company -- White Motors -- had its annual Christmas party. I remember attending one of these parties and walking out into the cold and snowy Ohio wintry air carrying a rather large Queen of Hearts tea set. It was beautiful -- red tin cups and saucers with the Queen of Hearts on them.

JERRY PERSON It began more than 78 years ago as a way to advertise his lunch stands in Sunset Beach and in Anaheim Landing. In 1926 James Burns, the owner of Jim's Lunch, needed a way to bring in customers to his business and in doing so a tradition was born. Burns staged possibly the first real boat parade in our area when he strung together 20 rowboats on a rope 300-yards long. Each boat was painted and decorated for the occasion and was pulled by Burns' motorboat, the Opal 5. Fifty people rode in that first boat parade from Sunset Beach up to Anaheim Landing where Burns treated his guests to a fine dinner.

Ron Davis Some people go through life viewing the glass as half empty. Consistent with that approach, I just heard part of a discussion regarding the value of Santa Claus. Apparently, 'tis the season to question the big fella, and some folks want to get rid of him. They argue that Santa's image is almost godlike because he purports to know who has been bad or good. They also assert that Santa's suggestion to impressionable children -- that those who have been good will be rewarded by Santa, and those who haven't been as good may suffer a deprivation -- sends the wrong message to children whose families don't have the means to satisfy their children's wish-list desires.

JERRY PERSON This is the time of year for folks to relax in front of a warm fire, remembering past Christmases and the wonderful friends and relatives that made them memorable. Last week we looked at how Huntington Beach celebrated Christmas of 1935 and this week we'll jump ahead to Christmas of 1947, bringing back memories of the fun and people who made it so. Part of the Christmas tradition is the giving of gifts, and in 1947 Crosby's music store was giving away a new RCA-Victor combination radio phonograph onstage at the Surf Theater.