Santa Has it Easy

We all agree that Christmas gets extra "cool points" for featuring a bearded, draft-animal-using, wool bedecked patron.  So, now that we've gotten that out of the way, it's time to destroy a bit of the Santa Claus myth.

You see, my father-in-law is Santa.

Honest.

He's also a retired farmer, naturalist, science teacher, and store owner, but now he spends most of the late fall as Father Christmas, and in this role, he speaks with some authority on matters relating to Christmas.

So when my wife says that she was told as a kid that at midnight on Christmas Eve, all the animals in the barn can speak, the word must have come from St. Nick himself.  I've pressed him on this claim myself and he's pretty steadfast.  Animals speak at Midnight on Christmas.

Which leads me to this conclusion:  Santa has it easy.  He simply gives commands to his reindeer in English (or German, or Polish, come to think of it), asks for some feedback from them (in the same language, of course) and they're off to the tops of porches and walls, dashing away and all that.

Some talent, eh?  No wonder he gets away with only getting the big hitch out once a year.

As for the rest of us, there's a little more to it than that.  Our animals don't speak verbally, but they do communicate, and understand, a great deal.  It's up to us to practice our skills at sending the right messages and interpreting the ones we get to get the work done most efficiently.

Either that or head down to the barn tonight at midnight.  Let me know what you find out.