A Christmas Miracle
So, growing up I went to a Catholic school, and we celebrated St. Nicholas Day in the beginning of December. The tradition goes that you leave your shoes out, and “St. Nicholas” will leave presents in them. When I was in elementary school, one year the day after St. Nicholas Day, my friend came into school all excited.
He said that the night before, he saw St. Nicholas in his room putting presents in his shoe! He described him as having a big white beard and putting something in his shoe that he had left out, before leaving. At the time, we were excited because it proved to us that Santa was real. Twenty years later, I’m having some beers with this friend.
We had not seen each other in a long time as he had moved away shortly after elementary school. We’re buzzed and telling old stories, and I bring up the St. Nicholas Day story, and ask him if that really happened. That’s how I found out the bizarre truth about what really happened. Very nonchalantly he goes, “Yeah, dude. It did, but it wasn’t St. Nicholas, that was a ghost.” He then basically tells me that his old house was built in the 1700s, and was definitely haunted by one of the original owners.
He said that on the said night he woke up to see an old man with a long white beard, tugging at his foot. When my friend saw him, the old man waved, and then floated up through the ceiling. He didn’t actually leave anything in my friend’s shoe. It took my friend several years for the experience to sink in, and it scares him now.