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Scary Christmas Stories: What Happens To Kids Who Try To Catch Santa

RAY SUAREZ, HOST:

Christmas is almost here, and we asked you to send us your scary Christmas stories. You didn't disappoint. We received tales from across the country, and we found that many of them had one common theme - a warning to little children who try to catch an early glimpse of Santa. Our first story comes from Amanda Tschauder from Imperial Beach, Calif.

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AMANDA TSCHAUDER: When I was younger, probably in the first or second grade, my sister asked me - do you know why elves have pointy shoes? And I just kind of looked at her because at this point, I was skeptical that Santa existed, and I was pretty sure it was my mom. And I said, no. She said, elves have pointy shoes so they can poke out the eyes of children who see Santa Claus. It's definitely seared into my memory. And it makes me chuckle now, but then, I just - it kind of made me uneasy. I was like, oh, Santa might be real, and the elves might poke at my eyes.

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AMY LIN: My name is Amy Lin (ph), and I live in Napa, Calif. And my scary Christmas story is when I was a child, 6 or 7 years old, one of our cousins in her early teens told us that if we peeked and saw Santa Claus in the middle of the night that Mr. Sandman would come throw sand in our eyes and we would go blind. I remember just being terrified, scared to death. There was an atrium in the center of our house, and I could see from my room into the living room, which is where Christmas tree was. And I never peeked to see if I could see Santa in the middle of the night.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.