​Santa came to our house early this year. Though he arrived in an SUV, not a sleigh, and he wasn’t “dressed all in fur from his head to his foot,” his long beard and the twinkle in his eye gave him away.
 
Truth be told, a visit from this Santa was high on my Christmas wish list. I’d often seen him around town and wanted to know how he ended up in Newaygo instead of at the North Pole. Turns out he grew up right here in Newaygo County and after a couple of decades away, returned to make this his home.
 
While he admits to owning a few red suits, and he’s been seen in the company of reindeer, this Santa, who calls himself “Charlie Johnson,” doesn’t claim to be the real Santa. Then again, he doesn’t claim not to be. He told me the same thing he tells children who press him on the question. 

​“Santa can’t see billions of kids all at once, at every mall, so he has helpers that help him out. It’s up to you to decide which one is the real one.”
 
There are so many of these surrogate Santas, in fact, they’ve formed a brotherhood, mingling (and jingling, no doubt) with one another at Santa schools and Santa conventions. Every October, Santa Charlie heads to the Charles W. Howard Santa School in Midland. There, some 300 Santas, Mrs. Clauses, and elves brush up on everything from the history of Saint Nicholas and Santa Claus to proper dress, reindeer habits, radio and television interview tips, and other useful tidbits. Most of all, “it’s about the spirit of being a Santa,” says Charlie.
 
Of course, cookies are served, along with pointers on the do’s and don’ts of Santa-ing.
The number one no-no: don’t promise to grant a wish or bring a particular gift.

​Santa Charlie has a few of his own rules of thumb, as well. “I’m more of a low-key Santa,” he says. “I think the kids respond to that better, especially the littlest ones. I won’t force them to sit on my lap. If the parents try and put them onto my lap, I’ll say, ‘No, hold them, or see if they’ll stand beside me.’”
 
In a venue where Santa can move around a bit—on the Santa Train that runs between Coopersville and Marne, for instance—Charlie resorts to stealth.
 
“I’ll sneak up behind them while their parents are holding them and do a photo bomb so the parents can get their picture of the kid with Santa.” 

​​He laughs—more of a chuckle than a ho-ho-ho—and another voice pipes up from the corner: “Santa is the most-photographed icon in the world.” That’s Mrs. Claus, AKA Carol Nickles, who came along with Santa Charlie on his visit to our house. The couple met at Santa school three years ago and became an item about a year later. Now they’re “having a blast” making the Santa scene together, says Carol.
 
At a recent Santa convention they performed in the talent show, harmonizing on a swing tune called “Holiday Romance” while accompanied by a Mrs. Claus from West Virginia. Carol, a seamstress, wore a glitzy red ball gown she’d created, and Charlie was gussied up, too.

“So fun, so fun,” Carol recalls.
 
Also fun: Appearances at the Rooftop Landing Reindeer Farm in Clare and field trips with busloads of other Santas and Mrs. Clauses from the Midland Santa school to the steam train in Owosso and Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland in Frankenmuth.
 
“Can you imagine these big coach buses pulling up to Bronner’s and all of us getting out?” says Carol. “Now, we’re not dressed in Santa garb, but there are all the beards, and we’re wearing red and green.”

​Santa-ing isn’t confined to the Christmas season anymore. “Christmas in July is starting to be thing,” says Carol. She and Charlie were invited to add their festive flair to the Star 105.7 radio booth at one such event. Charlie agreed on the condition that he wouldn’t have to wear his full Santa suit in 85-degree weather. Instead, he came up with a “Santa casual” ensemble of red shorts, a Santa-print Hawaiian shirt, and a straw hat, and Carol lightened up her Mrs. Claus-wear accordingly.
 
“Most people would say being a Santa is a calling,” says Carol. Charlie agrees, though Santa-ing doesn’t consume his whole life. He’s plenty busy with a variety of other activities, even after his recent retirement from TrueNorth, where he ran the LifeLink program and coordinated the Newaygo County Senior and Caregiver Expo. He’s often seen playing harmonica at River Stop Café’s open mic nights and running the sound board for Lion Heart Community Theater productions and concerts at Dogwood Center for the Performing Arts. This time of year, you’ll also find him caroling with the men’s chorus that strolls through Newaygo during the yearly Christmas Walk.

​Alas, our house has no chimney, so I couldn’t put Santa Charlie to the test of exiting the traditional way. He just walked out the front door like anyone else. But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight . . . Oh, who am I kidding? His windows were rolled up; I didn’t hear anything. I’m pretty sure, though, that as he drove away, he wished us “Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night.” 

In keeping with my December tradition, I've compiled a year-end list of memorable books I've read over the past twelve months. I don't rank my selections, concurring on that point with author Neil Gaiman, who believes picking five favorite books is like "picking the five body parts you'd most like not to lose."

The books listed here weren't all published in the past year. One has a publication date of 2009; the others were all published in the past six years. 

I never set out to read books that conform to particular themes, but when I look back at what I've read, I do notice common threads. A number of these books are testaments to perseverance and the ability to overcome adversity, from physical injury to neglect to dysfunction and abuse. Sounds like heavy stuff, I know, but I found all of these books inspiring in one way or another.

​Whatever you want to call it, here it is:

Georgia Under Water: Stories by Heather Sellers
Anytime I see Heather Sellers's byline on an essay or short story in The Sun magazine or elsewhere, I put that piece of writing at the top of my to-read pile. Her honesty and clarity in writing about her unconventional upbringing and life challenges make for riveting stories. The short stories in this collection are fiction, but the protagonist seems to have a lot in common with real-life Heather in her youth. The stories are strange and edgy, yet utterly believable. Especially masterful: Sellers's depiction of the physicality of puberty -- a young girl's startling growth spurts and awkward grace. 

King of Doubt by Peter Gibb
HeartWood readers may remember Peter from his guest post on mindful conversation. King of Doubt will introduce you to younger versions of Peter on his journey from self-doubt to wonder and joy. There are laugh-out-loud moments (young boys discussing how babies are made) and flat-out gorgeous and evocative passages (one in particular in a section about a Ferris wheel). Though Peter's story ventures into darkness, it emerges into hope, and it left me feeling uplifted.

Everyday Book Marketing: Promotion ideas to fit your regularly scheduled life by Midge Raymond
This one's pure practicality. I include it for any other authors or aspiring authors looking for guidance on book promotion. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, the transition from writer to author to book promoter is not a natural one for most of us. This book offers tips on what to do before publication, as well as during and after book launch. Best of all, the emphasis is on keeping the seemingly endless tasks manageable. In addition to Raymond's advice, the book includes Q&As with authors and other experts -- event coordinators, a publicist, a librarian -- who offer additional helpful suggestions.

Reckless Steps Toward Sanity A Memoir by Judith Sara Gelt
Full disclosure: Judith is a friend. We met at a writers' conference in 2013, discovered we were at about the same point in writing our memoirs, and kept in touch during the process of drafting, revising, and publishing our books. However, I'm not including her book here simply because she's a friend. It truly is a standout in my mind. As I wrote in my Goodreads review: "With a mother incapacitated by bipolar disorder; a remote, controlling, inappropriately-behaving father; and inaccessible older siblings, Judith Sara Gelt must find her own way in the world. It’s no wonder she takes wrong turns and winds up in some dark and dangerous places. In this honest, unflinching memoir, Gelt takes readers right into those places to witness at close range the choices she comes to regret — and to understand why there are some she never will. Though often disturbing, this girl-to-woman’s story is, in the end, inspiring. Readers will find hope in Gelt’s ability to emerge from her painful past whole and capable of great tenderness."

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
If you'd asked me a couple of years ago if I'd like to read a book about a cemetery populated by ghosts, I'd have said, "Ummm, not really." Yet I'm here to tell you I have read -- and enjoyed -- not one, but two such books. The first was George Saunders's Lincoln in the Bardo, which I included on my 2018 year-end book list. This year, it's Niffenegger's compelling tale set in London's Highgate Cemetery. Though reviews from other readers and critics are mixed -- some feeling this work falls short of Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife -- I found it imaginative, quirky, and artful.

Detroit Hustle: A Memoir of Life, Love, and Home by Amy Haimerl
I'll read just about any book about Detroit, yet not all end up on my most-memorable list. This one was an un-put-downable delight. Transplanted Brooklynites Haimerl and her husband sink their savings -- and a lot more -- into an abandoned 1914 Georgian Revival house. Detroit Hustle is the story of a house that becomes a home (though not easily or cheaply), a city in transition, and most of all, a sense of place and belonging.

Prognosis: A Memoir of My Brain by Sarah Vallance
Thrown from a horse, Vallance, a PhD with a high-level career, suffers a traumatic brain injury that causes her IQ to plummet and her personality to change. At first, she accepts the dire prognosis she's given, believing there's no hope of recovery. Fortunately, she eventually rejects that view and begins rehabilitating herself. Her memoir is a remarkable story of perseverance. 

Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover
A New York Times bestseller, one of President Obama's favorite books of 2018, praised by Bill Gates and just about every reviewer in the universe, this book hardly needs my endorsement. But here it is anyway. Raised in a survivalist, fanatically religous family that mistrusts formal education, yet provides little in the way of home schooling, Westover somehow manages to extricate herself and make up for the astonishing gaps in her knowledge of life and the world we live in. This story bears witness to the power of learning.

Clock Dance by Anne Tyler
You didn't think I could leave Anne Tyler out of a memorable-books roundup, did you? Her latest novel, published last year, is delightfully quirky in that inimitable Anne Tyler way. With a cast of offbeat, yet convincing characters and a compelling tale of self discovery that spans fifty years, this is a dance I just couldn't sit out.

Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth by Sarah Smarsh
The title neatly sums up Smarsh's story, but there's so much more to this widely-acclaimed best-seller. It's at once a deeply personal story and a sociological treatise on the plight of America's rural poor and the complex mix of factors that keep them stuck in cycles of poverty. I'm descended from hard-working, rural folks like Smarsh's family, yet her book opened my eyes to aspects of their lives I had never fully appreciated.

Now it's your turn. Tell me about the books you read this year.