It was Christmas 2006, the year of the best Santa stunt ever pulled.

 

After weeks of planning, creating, and recreating, Heidy Cortez finally had it, the perfect Christmas list. Perfectly decorated, perfectly thought out and ordered from most wanted gift to least, and then finally mailed to Santa.

 

When the day had finally come, December 24, 2006, her family had to attend her aunt’s traditional Christmas party, of course. But as she and her sister got in the car, her parents told them to wait, because they forgot something inside the house. Little did the girls know, they had something up their sleeves.

 

The party came and went, hours of endless conversations, piles of tamales, and innumerable amount of hugs and kisses from family members. Once midnight came, the Christmas spirit filled the room like never before. An even larger flood of hugs and kisses came, “Feliz Navidad!” could be heard from every room, and Heidy was ecstatic because that meant it was almost time to go home and open some presents!

 

Before they left, the living room had just their Christmas decorations and absolutely no presents. It was a barren wasteland, lacking the life coming from sparkling bows and wrapping paper. But when they returned, the tree was completely surrounded by presents! All around the tree, boxes and bags colored red, green, blue, silver, and white.

 

The magic was almost tangible. Heidy’s 6-year-old mind couldn’t take it. “Mommy! Santa came! I can’t believe it! Santa came!” “Santa” just happened to come during the time they had gone to her aunt’s party, leaving him enough time to drop off all those presents.

 

She imagined him riding off in his sleigh in the midnight air as we were away, and she thought it was the best Santa stunt ever pulled.

 

“Now that I’m older, I understand,” she recalls. “But when I was 6, I was freaking out. It was the greatest Santa stunt my parents ever pulled.”12/12/16