The Festival is nothing if not well-organized. After 40 years, the Widow Missus has it down to a science. There are people in town that have been involved almost as long as the Widow Missus, and each year they take charge of their own little part of it. Cliff Magnuson organizes construction of the booths and tents for the Festival. The Swensens take signups for the booths at their Café, help organize the parade and handle the dessert auction. The city council and police department start discussing the Festival in September, planning out the parade route, street closures, and handling the publicity to let people in the surrounding communities know about it. One year, they even managed to get it mentioned in Texas Monthly.
Of course, the highlight for the kids is still Santa Claus. While she has turned over the organizational details of Santa’s Workshop to Janet Carmichael in recent years, the Widow Missus has always handled the selection of the Santa herself. For years, Santa was played by her husband. After his death, she felt it a personal duty to make sure that the role was filled by a fitting person, someone who loved kids and loved the town. Mayor Al had been a perfect choice.
This year, though, she was coming up short.
Cliff Magnuson had volunteered his services almost immediately. While she liked Cliff and appreciated everything he did for the Festival, the Widow Missus felt he’d be putting too much pressure on himself by adding the role of Santa on top of it all. There was always something that came up during the Festival – an electrical outlet that stopped working, a tent that started to fall. She depended on him to be available to deal with things like that. It would be hard to explain to the kids why Santa had to leave to replace a fuse.
John Swensen certainly looked the part, but he was in the same situation. With the dessert auction and parade, it would be too much to handle, even with Jo’s help. Besides, with his distinctive Minnesota accent, even the smallest child would know it was him as soon as he opened his mouth to speak.
That was the trouble: she kept finding that either the men she thought of weren’t appropriate for the part (too tall, too short, too young), or were already involved with other areas of the Festival.
She was still trying to find her Santa when she stopped by the library to collect the library’s November subscription check for the Sentinel. Mike Baldridge, the librarian, was talking to Cap Blakeney when she walked in.
“Morning, Mike. Morning Cap.” She smiled.
“Good morning, Missus Johnson,” replied Cap. “I was just telling Mike that Emily is bringing Little Philip to the Festival this year to see Santa Claus.”
“Oh, that will be wonderful,” she said. “We’ll be sure to make multiple copies of that picture so you and your Mom can both have one, too.”
Cap smiled. “Thank you! I’d like that.”
Mike handed her the check. “So, have you found someone to play Santa this year since Al won’t be around?”
The Widow Missus shook her head. “I’m still trying to find someone. Everyone I’ve considered is either too busy or the wrong size or the wrong age. It can’t be just anyone. It has to be just the right person.”
She took a second and looked at Mike. He was just about the right size. He was a bit young, in his early thirties, but her husband had been about his age when the first Festival had been held. And the kids loved him – Wednesday story hour was always a big success.
Mike noticed her staring. He shook his head.
“If you’re thinking what I think you’re thinking…”
“Oh, come on now. Not even for the children?” the Widow Missus smiled. “Not even for Janet Carmichael?”
Mike blushed, suddenly flustered. Cap chuckled. He knew how Mike felt about Janet. It was another one of those things he’d figured out.
Mike cleared his throat. “Um…what’s…what does Janet have to do with this?”
The Widow Missus continued. “Janet is in charge of organizing all the parts of the Festival involving Santa. She makes sure he gets from the parade to the Workshop to meet the children. She works very close with Santa.”
“She’s Santa’s little helper,” chimed in Cap.
“Please, Mike. We need a Santa, and I think you’d be perfect. Of course, you’d need a little padding. And you’d need to work on disguising your voice a bit. But you could do it.”
Mike sighed. How could he say no to the Widow Missus? She had done so much for him since he’d moved to Newtonberg. She’d even been the one who’d recommended him to the council to fill the position of librarian after the previous librarian, had retired.