A childhood belief about father christmas

Altho I was skeptical about Santa, each holiday something would happen to assure me that I should continuing believing in him.
1 - Daddy was unemployed for months and we lived off his savings account money, yet Santa delivered more toys for my brother and me that year more than in previous years.

2 - Another year we found his footprints and all his reindeer's footprints in the backyard snow. His prints led to the house and back to his sleigh and the reindeer prints were all lined up as one would expect them to be with one reindeer in front of the next. (They landed in our back yard because there was ice on the roof.

3 - One other year Santa arrived early in our neighborhood - about 5 pm. We were told that he had to start his nightly round extra early that year because there were so many more children to visit than in previous years. Our neighborhood was selected as an early visiting location. We had to stay in our rooms because Santa had to work quickly and did not want us in his way.
My brother and I hid in my bedroom at the end of the hall. We could hear the jingle bells growing closer and closer as Santa came down the street. I heard him come to the front door (since we had no fireplace). He knocked on the door, said Ho, Ho, Ho to my parents who talked to him as he unloaded his bag. Mom was making her comments like "Oh, she's going to love that...... He will have hours of fun playing with that"....
My bro. & I laid on our bellies trying to see through the crack between the bottom of the door and the floor. We could distinctly see Santa's boots with snow sliding off of them. Later when we came out of the bedroom, sure enough, melted snow remained on the carpet right where we had seen the boots standing.

Our parents thanked Santa for coming and he wished them a Merry Christmas. We heard him depart as the bells jingled on down the street.

All the kids we played with who lived on the our street had Santa visit early. We all shared our experiences and no one could have convinced any of us that year that Santa was anyone other then who we believed him to be.

Here was a community effort with assistance from the volunteer firefighters keeping the Christmas spirit alive for at least 10 little friends.

Our mother was known for returning Christmas gifts after Christmas, but never did she return anything that Santa left.