I came up during the Great Depression when times were hard!
The Christmas catalogs arrived about the first of October and we had worn
them out by December, looking and wishing and making lists to send to Santa
Claus.. We gave mama our lists to mail but I suspect now that they never got
mailed, because she didn't have the 3 cents it cost to mail a letter at that
time... Any way, it seemed that Santa never stopped at our house and I know,
my parents felt really bad about.it. One Christmas eve they told us to go to
bed and maybe Santa would come! We went to bed but naturally, we couldn't go
to sleep! After about an hour, we heard a loud Bang! We jumped out of bed
and ran into the front room. Daddy came in the door with his shotgun and
said, "That'll teach him to go by without stoppin'!"
"What happened?" we asked.. Daddy said, "I saw Santa going over our house
without stoppin' so I shot one of his reindeers!"
We didn't get any toys that year but we had plenty of deer meat to eat!!

G. Lee Hearl
Authentic Appalachian Storyteller
Abingdon, Va..
http://hearlshill.freeservers.com/index.html