Author: steeuwsen

Merry Christamas
from the thirteen Santas of
The Santa Project

The first rule of Santa Project is you don’t talk about The Santa Project. The second rule of Santa Project is YOU DON’T TALK ABOUT SANTA PROJECT. The third rule of Santa project is if you’re in Santa Project you have to be a Santa.

It was Jon’s first Christmas away from Iceland and he really felt like he needed to do something big for the season. Especialy since after he left us on the tricycles he’d ended up back in Beijing and the hostle was becoming his own personal Hotel California. He bought thirteen Santa suits for the thirteen Icelandic Santas of yor and we all agreed to met up in ZhengZhou. Jon recruited some more Santas in Beijing, so the crew was13 strong.

I arrived in ZhengZhou on the 22nd but, I located them late on the 23rd. Before I got there they bought loads of candy and small gifts. We celebrated the Christmas reunionin of everyone dancing in the hotel that night and planned where we were headed the next day: to the nearby village DengFeng.

On Christmas Eve we danced down the street handing out preasents and candy on our way to the bus station. We passed a stage that was having some sort of promotional show and one of the organizers grabbed us and asked if we would throw some gifts for them. To a hard techno beat we got jiggy with it on the stage and threw out little key chains with the stores name. We wished them a merry Christmas, ‘Cheng Deng Quia La’ and continued off to the bus station.

When we got to DengFeng we gave out what we had to any passing child. There were a few terrified kids that couldn’t compute the mad seen in frontof them: 13 people with big white beards and red suits running over to them with maniacal smiles. There were also some really appreciative kids that just stared at their new ball or stuffed dog. We found the town park and the seen slowly degenerated into bedlem. Everyone realized what was going on and we started to get mobbed. After some group pictures we split up to try and give stuff without getting trampled by grabby kids and their even more grabby parents. Once everything was given away we still had a huge crowd and so we started singing christmas songs, but even our group didn’t know all the words. I started teaching the kids in the circle head and shoulders knees and toes. It’s the easiestEnglish song there is. It was like I was leading excersize time at school again. The hoeky-poeky really took off and then the Chinese Santas lead the kids in some Chinese versions of the songs we were singing. After, we climbed the park hill to a pagoda that over looked the town for a few group pictures and to escape our fans.

On our way back to the bus station the guys gave even their costumes away.

We returned to the city we had our Christmas dinner in Pizza Hut. Which is quite a fancy affair, like when in Demolition Man Stalone gets invited for dinner and dancing atTaco Bell. We stayed in the hotel for the evening with our Christmas tree. We had two people from Iceland, two English, TwoDutch, One German, four Chinese, one Israeli and one Canadian. On Christmas day we cuddled and watched dvds for most of the day.

Tomorrow we’re splitting up. I’m going to keep on heading south to warmer and warmer weather. I want to be in Vietnamin a few weeks.

My Christmas is never as good as when sitting with Mom, Dad, Jer, Dan and Keith in the living room and eating chocolate. I miss you a lot and love you tones, Merry Christmas, I hope you get the most out of the next year =)

love,

Steve

4 Responses to “”

  1. Mom Says:

    Merry Christmas Steve, sounds like you had an eventful day. It must have been fun. Did miss you here though also Daniel and Nicole. Have good travels on to Vietnam.

  2. Jeremy Says:

    Crazy. Definitely looks like an adventure. Maybe the next Christmas we will be all together, been a long time.

  3. Anonymous Says:

    holy crap that’s like the best christmas adventure story I’ve heard to date….

    -Keith

  4. Dan Says:

    Dude! Awesome, your tales always give me smile. Missing you tonnes, Merry Christmas and take care.

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