Hiding the Presents 藏礼物
i had finished my christmas shopping early and had wrapped all the presents. having two curious children, i had to find a suitable hiding place. i chose an ideal spot—the furnace room. i stacked the presents and covered them with a blanket, positive they’d remain undiscovered. when i went to get the gifts to put them under the tree, i lifted the blanket and there, stacked neatly on top of my gifts, were presents addressed to "mom and dad, from the kids."
早些天我就做好圣诞购物并包装好所有的礼物了。因为有两个好奇的孩子，我需要找一个适合藏礼物的隐蔽处。我想到了一个理想的地方--炉子间。我叠好礼物，用一块毯子把它们盖起来，觉得它们肯定不会被发现。当我去拿礼物想把它们放在圣诞树下时，我掀开毯子，看到，在我准备好的礼物上面整齐地叠放着另一些礼物，上面写着“给爸爸妈妈，你们的宝贝”。
A Brief History of Santa圣诞老人的故事
On the 24th of December every year, children around the world put out milk and cookies in the hopes of luring a magic fat man into their home who will leave presents behind before sneaking into the house next door.
每年的12月24日，世界各地的孩子都会拿出牛奶及饼干，希望能吸引一名有魔法的胖男人来到他们家，并在偷偷潜入下一户人家前留下礼物。
How did such an odd tradition begin?
这样奇怪的传统是如何开始的?
You can pretty much blame Northern Europe, where the winter weather is cold and dark and depressing. And the coldest and darkest and depressingest day is the Solstice on December 21st to 22nd when the sun only gives a few weak hours of light if any at all.
你几乎可以归咎于北欧，在这里冬天的气候又冷、又暗、令人消沈。而最冷、最暗、最令人消沈的一天是12月21日到22日的冬至，这时即便有阳光，也只会带来几个小时的微弱光明。