As November came to a close, my son began his Christmas preparations in earnest.

He began to make his list and check it twice. But it didn’t stop there. He wanted to be sure I had my Christmas list in order, too.

When I didn’t have an immediate answer to my son’s query about my Christmas list for Santa, he told me not to worry about it. He would take care of it.

Hard pass. My wants and my son’s wants aren’t the same. And I certainly don’t want a 12-year-old boy writing my list! I imagine it would feature heavily with action-figure items and an oversized tub of flavored popcorn.

So I bucked it up and crafted a few items to satisfy both my son and Santa: a pair of new sweatpants and a seat heater for my car.

This is the edition of the paper that features our annual Letters to Santa from grade school children. The grade schools in Ellsworth County were invited to participate, and what you will read on pages B8-B10 are the resulting letters.

I confess: I love reading them. I laugh. I cry. I am thankful for the goodness that exists in our children.

This year, I was deeply amused at students who were checking about others on the naughty/nice list. I had such a good chuckle over this.

Students have a TON of questions ... and they’re good ones.

Let’s start with the reindeer questions:

• Are your reindeer tired?

• What do you feed the reindeer?

• Do your reindeer eat milo stalks?

• Does Rudolph always lead the sleigh?

• Which reindeer is the most ornery?

I love that many of our students asked personal questions of Santa.

• How many years have you been doing this?

• When were you born?

• How do you make presents?

• How many cookies do you eat every day?

• Do you get cold in the North Pole?

• How do you fly?

• How big are you?

• Do you have grandkids?

• How old are you?

• What do you want for Christmas?

• How much money do you have?

• Are the Chiefs your favorite football team?

And, let’s not forget the elves. There’s much we need to know.

• How many elves do you have at the North Pole?

•What do the elves do on break?

There’s the heartwarming, but also those nuggets in the letters that had me reaching for my Kleenex box.

• I have a baby brother that is in heaven.

• For Christmas this year, I really want my dad not to hurt so much.

• I want kids with cancer to have a Merry Christmas.

Perhaps the most different from my own childhood is the rural nature of Ellsworth County. I grew up in Wichita, and am sure I never heard the following items on a Christmas wish list:

• ... a dozer or an excavator • a big shed

• new animal traps

• 20-gauge shotgun shells But above all ... my favorite question (and my son’s, too): “Can you make it a white Christmas this year?”

Bonar is the editor/publisher of the I-R and can be reached at kbonar@indyrepnews. com.