Bruce Cameron

Editor’s Note: The following column was originally published in 2009.

When I was younger, I used to love sitting in Santa’s lap at the shopping mall — and was sad when I finally outgrew it at age 30.

Last year, I was at a charity holiday theme party where Santa was scheduled to appear, only, as it turned out, the theme was “Santa Won’t Be Here Because His Car Was Repossessed.” This is hard to explain to a room full of first-graders who are already grumpy because they’ve spent the afternoon helping to wrap presents for other “less fortunate” children. (How can they be “less fortunate” when they...