Whatever will Father Christmas be asked to do next!??

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As some of you may know, I become Father Christmas for a few hours at weekends and on some weekdays, too, at this season. Usually it involves a short interview with one or two children (and their parents or grandparents), to find out what they have at the top of their tree, whether they have been 'good', what they are hoping that 'I' will bring them on Christmas Eve and various other things which are customary at Christmas. Now, as you probably know, there are various friends of mine whose duties are fairly specific - the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and the Stork being the main ones (there are also St. Nicholas, Sinterklaas or Santa Claus, with whom I am often confused, The Three Kings and the ChristChild and, more recently, the Snowman and the Grinch). Each of us try not to usurp each other's roles, though I have to say that I am often understandably but erroneously called 'Santa' by many people. That I can accept. The other day, however, I was handed an envelope addressed to the family whom I was about to see - two delightful children aged, I believe, four and six (there were also four adults present but they tend to loom tall and rather hazy with the spectacles I wear). Well, once we had got through the formalities of their names (Poppy and Joseph) and what they were hoping I would bring, I asked them to help me open the envelope. In it was a photograph which I had to explain was actually a picture of the inside of their mummy's tummy - a 'scan', in other words - and what would become, in a few months time, I gathered, their new brother or sister (it wasn't clear which). Well, it wasn't exactly a Christmas Present (more likely an Easter present, I think) but it was rather lovely to see their reactions. I didn't have to tell Poppy (the younger one) to give her mummy a hug but I did have to tell Joseph that it was OK to do that and that he should. Oh dear! What inhibitions about emotions we males seem to get at such an early age!