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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Secret Santa Reveals His Identity
2006-11-18
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- For 26 years, a man known only as Secret Santa has roamed the streets every December quietly giving people money. He started with $5 and $10 bills. As his fortune grew, so did the gifts.
In recent years, Secret Santa has been handing out $100 bills, sometimes two or three at a time, to people in thrift stores, diners and parking lots. So far, he's anonymously given out about $1.3 million.
In recent years, Secret Santa has been handing out $100 bills, sometimes two or three at a time, to people in thrift stores, diners and parking lots. So far, he's anonymously given out about $1.3 million. It's been a long-held holiday mystery: Who is Secret Santa?

But now, weak from chemotherapy and armed with a desire to pass on his belief in random kindness, Secret Santa has decided it's time to reveal his identity. He is Larry Stewart, a 58-year-old businessman from the Kansas City suburb of Lee's Summit, Mo., who made his millions in cable television and long-distance telephone service.

His holiday giving started in December 1979 when he was nursing his wounds at a drive-in restaurant after getting fired. It was the second year in a row he had been fired the week before Christmas.
"It was cold and this car hop didn't have on a very big jacket, and I thought to myself, `I think I got it bad. She's out there in this cold making nickels and dimes.'"
"It was cold and this car hop didn't have on a very big jacket, and I thought to myself, `I think I got it bad. She's out there in this cold making nickels and dimes,'" he said.

He gave her $20 and told her to keep the change. "And suddenly I saw her lips begin to tremble and tears begin to flow down her cheeks. She said, `Sir, you have no idea what this means to me.'"

Stewart went to the bank that day and took out $200, then drove around looking for people who could use a lift. That was his "Christmas present to himself." He's hit the streets each December since.
Posted by:Fred

#4  A wonderful man. Thanks for the story, Fred.

In a similar (if considerably smaller) vein, trailing daughter #1, having reached the stage when she remembered how exciting it had been for her when slightly younger to find a coin on the sidewalk or in the parking lot, started bring her spare change on shopping trips to scatter for other little children to find.
Posted by: trailing wife   2006-11-18 21:42  

#3  Inspirational. If I can afford to part with a couple of hundred I may just do something like this myself here in my hometown.

(I love to do stuff like this anyway)

Posted by: FOTSGreg   2006-11-18 19:24  

#2  Awesome. What a classy character. I hope his personal health turns around. Personifies what Twain once said:

"Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of a joy you must have somebody to divide it with."

Posted by: .com   2006-11-18 14:22  

#1  God bless him. Isn't this what the Christmas spirit (and good karma) is all about?
Posted by: Frank G   2006-11-18 14:14  

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