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Wearing a Santa hat

Eustace C. Scrubb
@EustaceCScrubb
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As I've mentioned before, I work as a hospice chaplain. Lately, I've been wearing a Santa hat to work.

Yesterday, I was walking through a hospital lobby and a little girl said to her mother, "Look! It's Santa!"

I turned, said "Merry Christmas!" and kept walking.

The girl said to her mother, "He said, 'Merry Christmas!'"

To be honest, that's why I started growing a beard this fall. I wanted a Santa beard. When I walk through nursing facilities, patients often say, "Hey, it's Santa!" and laugh because they've made a good joke.

They have, too. I am so far from that mythical, marvelous symbol of hope and generosity, but I don't mind being mistaken for him, even for a moment.

So, who would you like to be mistaken for? There are always opportunities to reach out with kindness that will make people think, "Did I just see G-d at work?"

I plan to shave off my beard on New Year's Day, but I hope my actions in 2026 might still be mistaken for Someone Else's. What if, in the new year, instead of seeing me, people see Christ in me? What could be better?

Who would you like to be mistaken for?

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Discussion (19)

  • Barry Jones@BarryJones

    I've been wearing a Santa hat for over 20 years. I start the day after Thanksgiving and put back in the closet Dec 31 or so. The kids who are out shopping with their Moms like it...and sometimes their Moms do too! It is usually good for some smiles and a few Merry Christmases. No beard so I just say I am one of Santa's helpers -that I keep the naughty and nice list. I have 5 or 6 hats because they wear out or get dirty and replace as needed the week after Christmas when they are on sale! Keep it up, it's fun and the hats are pretty warm for a 3 dollar hat!

  • She@She

    Lovely post. It reminded me of a time, maybe 30 years ago, when the late Mr. She and I were out Christmas shopping. He was wearing a fuzzy hat, some sort of faux-fur, with ear flaps which could be folded up and the straps tied above, or let down and the straps tied under his chin. (I didn't like it much, and--as we had two indistinguishable long-haired tabby rescue cats, known as the "Yeepers" at the time--I always referred to it as his "Chinese Yeeper Hat.") Anyway, there we were, in the mall, and a young mother and her toddler came up to us. The little girl stopped, looked up in amazement at all 6'3"+ of him, and said, "Mommy, that man looks like a doggie!"

    In my youth, during our long annual summers on Prince Edward Island, I was so often mistaken for Gracie Finley, the star of the Anne of Green Gables musical that played every year in Charlottetown, that I'm sure I must feature in thousands of tourist memories and photo albums (fewer and fewer each year as time passes, though). That's what long red hair and braids will do for you.

    At this point in my life, it would be enough just to be mistaken for someone who's always done her best.

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