Santa Claus Meets Willie Nelson(Martha Huett) When word spread to Santa Claus that American country music icon Willie Nelson wanted to meet him, it had come directly from the horse's mouth. Willie and his four great grandchildren were out one brisk Texas morning hand-feeding the 70 horses whom the globally-beloved megastar had rescued from slaughterhouses. A couple of grateful horses from Oklahoma overheard a conversation between them.

"Pops, did you ever see Santa Claus when you were little?"

"Nope, but I waited up for him plenty of times."

"Then how come you didn't see him?"

"Because I was just a little fella back then and couldn't stay awake. Fell asleep everytime."

"Well, now that you're all grown up, how come you still haven't met him? Can't you stay awake later?"

Willie Nelson chuckled and thought how fun it might be to actually be able to stay awake past midnight. Heck, sometimes he'd be happy just to make it past ten o'clock. The last time he had pulled a full-fledged, all-nighter was over thirty years ago. Born during the Great Depression and raised by his grandparents, Willie Nelson was now 91 years old.

"Ok, I tell ya what. How 'bout you kids and me stay up this Christmas waitin' on Santa? I been wishin' to meet the jolly ol' man my whole life!"

Squeals of happiness. Jumps for joy. Clapping of mittened hands.

"Yay! We can make some pecan pralines!"

"And lots of hot chocolate!"

"Does Rudolph and the reindeer like pralines and hot chocolate, too, Pops?"

Willie's big heart swelled at that question. He'd hoped to raise his eight children, five grandchildren and four great grandchildren with a consideration and compassion for others, including four-legged ones. Willie Nelson was a family man and animal lover, as well as a Grammy Award-winning outlaw country singer/songwriter, an actor and a philanthropist.

"Naw, not so much, but we'll do like the kids do in Argentina and leave out hay and water."

"Yay! Will one bale be enough for each reindeer?"

"I'd imagine."

"That means we'll need nine bales!"

The four kids scampered off to the hay barn.

Willie's heart wasn't the only one warmed by the children's sweet excitement. The two eavesdropping horses from Oklahoma decided right then and there that the man who saved their lives, brought them to his 700-acre ranch sanctuary, and hand-fed them twice a day would have his Christmas wish granted. A horse whisper-chain went out that day.

The message was passed by horse from Willie Nelson's 'Luck Ranch' in Spicewood Springs, Texas. It went north to the Horse and Hound Rescue Foundation in Guthrie, Oklahoma, then travelled further north to the Kindness Ranch Animal Sanctuary in Hartville, Wyoming. Moving west, the horse-whisper chain was carried to the stables at the Asher House Sanctuary in Salem, Oregon, and finally, northwest to Cath Lair Farms Horse Rescue in North Pole, Alaska. From there, the words right out of the horse's mouth reached some free-roaming reindeer in the wild winter wonderland. They told their cousin Rudolph the Red-nosed reindeer, who then told Santa Claus. And when Santa told Mrs. Claus, well, that was that. The great Willie Nelson would be Santa's little helper and Mrs. Claus' holiday guest that year for Christmas.

"Just tell Willie to bring his guitar, Trigger!" requested Mrs. Claus. She adored Willie's music and couldn't wait to sing her favorite song, 'On The Road Again', with him. She might even request her second favorite song, 'Always On My Mind'. It reminded Mrs. Claus of the precious love between her and Santa. She turned toward her kitchen to start planning a special Christmas treat for Willie's visit. "I just happen to know what his favorite food is," Mrs. Claus happily told herself, and hummed along to the 'On The Road Again' earworm firmly lodged in her mind.

Meanwhile, back in Texas, a cozy Christmas Eve fire burned merry and bright in the living room fireplace at Willie Nelson's home. Like Mrs. Claus, his great-grandchildren were also in the kitchen. They were helping Annie D'Angelo, Willie's wife of 33 years, prep the pecan pralines and hot chocolate for their upcoming Santa Claus watch party. Willie had just wrapped his last present and was on the couch tuning up Trigger. The kids would be wanting to sing some songs, maybe even dance along as many young (and old) music lovers are wont to do.

The Santa watch party at Willie Nelson's home that Christmas Eve could very nearly have turned into an all-night rave. Annie and the kids rocked out to all the fast ones; 'Santa Claus is Coming To Town' and 'Run Rudolph Run' and 'Jingle Bell Rock' and a bunch more. They sang together through 'Winter Wonderland', 'Little Drummer Boy' and tons of other favorites. The children even got to open one present each.

However, it was nearing midnight when the sugar rush from the pralines and hot chocolate that had surged through the kids, suddenly left them depleted. Happy and sated in belly and heart, they had simply fallen asleep while waiting for Santa Claus. Annie carried them to bed and announced her own slumber while Willie straightened things up and put away Trigger.

Willie Nelson later snagged a praline and headed for the couch. He quietly munched the last bite as the fire turned to ash and quickly started to cool. The clock struck twelve. Not a creature was stirring. Willie smiled as he lay relaxed on the sofa, incredulous that he managed to stay awake until midnight. He looked at the sparkly Christmas tree and shut his eyes briefly with a deep, contented sigh.

Suddenly, a thunderous whooshing sound came down the chimney and landed in a big thump. Cooled ash puffed out of the fireplace. Then came the special, in-person greeting that Willie Nelson had yearned to hear at Christmastime for nine whole decades...

"Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!"

Willie's eyes snapped open.

"Santa! Oh, man alive! It's really you!" he exclaimed to the jolly man in a red suit with a beard so snowy white.

Santa Claus assured, "Ho! Ho! Ho! You better believe it's me, Willie."

Santa reminded him, "It's like what your son, Micah Nelson, wrote a while back in one of your biographies, 'If you don't believe Santa Claus is real, you clearly haven't met my father!'"

Willie laughed in delight at the man with the twinkling eyes, rosy cheeks and the nose like a cherry.

"I believe! I believe!" Willie promised.

Santa revealed, "I gotta tell you, Willie, Mrs. Claus got a good laugh out of reading what Micah wrote. I mean, who doesn't believe in Santa Claus?" Shaking his head, he added, "Imagine that!"

"I've got four great-grandchildren sleeping upstairs who believe, too. We even had a watch party and stayed up just for you! Should I go wake them up?"

"Ho! Ho! Ho! Sounds like a fun time. But no, let the babes sleep. I need your help. We need to talk," Santa said and looked around the room and over at the Christmas tree. "You have any holiday treats around here?"

Over mugs of hot chocolate and a plate of Texas pecan pralines, Santa Claus went over their modus operandi for this particular Christmas Eve. Santa explained that what with Willie's passion for animal advocacy, his enormously generous contributions toward horse rescue and protection and his love for children and all animals, he would make a pretty great Christmas delivery partner, especially among fellow equine lovers. These were the good little horse aficionados who had written to Santa to assure him they had been 'nice', not 'naughty', all that year.

"We'll be going 'round the world, but it'll go by in a blink. Plus, we'll get all sorts of treats! Whaddya say, Willie?"

"Lemme grab my hat and bandana!" That was a 'yes'.

""Oh! And I almost forgot," Santa Claus told Willie Nelson. "Bring Trigger!"

Mrs. Claus was finishing up preparing Willie's favorite food when she heard Rudolph's and his flying reindeer team's bells approach from on nigh. But this time, the jingling bells were just an accompaniment to the snappy strums of one of Willie Nelson's most beloved holiday songs, 'Here Comes Santa Claus'. She pulled off the wide red satin ribbon that was bundling her soft Afro away from her face to better hear what she thought she might have heard. Strumming of a guitar? Yes...yes! Willie brought Trigger!

Santa guided his reindeer through the Christmas Eve sky, pulling the sleigh toward his North Pole home and workshop. In the back seat, Willie Nelson made quite the iconic sight, singing and strumming, with a signature redheaded braid draped over each shoulder, a red bandana around his forehead and his black hat tilted back on his head. Rudolph and the other eight reindeer were keeping time with their jingling harness bells.

Mrs. Claus rushed outside her gingerbread house into the snowy night, just as Santa's sleigh sailed over the elves' workshop and landed on the front lawn. She was always Santa's very favorite vision everytime he came home. Mrs. Claus was the kindest, sweetest, smartest and most beautiful wife he could ever ask for. He especially loved seeing the soft, white snowflakes land on her dark skin, as they were now. It's like marshmallows on chocolate, he thought.

In her hurry to meet Willie Nelson, Mrs. Claus rushed out of the house without her shawl. She wanted the country music star in her home, eating her food, and playing that guitar. She literally ran to the sleigh. The two laughed and embraced. No introductions needed (after all, they've known each other for years but just never had a chance to meet). She blew her husband a perfunctory kiss, and said, "Santa, go on over to the workshop and finish up with the elves. I'm taking this boy in and getting him something to eat. Just look at him. Tsk tsk. He's hungry, and the poor dear has never even tasted my cooking!"

While Santa Claus and his elves were engaged in gathering and wrapping toys and games, Willie Nelson was engaged with a big plate of buttermilk biscuits and chocolate gravy. "Mmm! The chocolate looks like gravy, but it tastes like pudding." He took another big bite and exclaimed, "This is just the way my grandma used to make it!"

"I got the recipe* from your sister, Bobbie Nelson, just the other day. Darling girl."

"But, but, wait. What? My sister. Just the other day? How...?

Bobbie Nelson passed out of this timeline two years ago at the age of 91 after a long career as a pianist and country singer.

"It's Christmas magic, Willie. Oh, and Bobbie says 'hey', by the way."

Willie swallowed his bite and simply believed. Besides, he kind of liked the idea of his sister chumming it up with the delightful Mrs. Claus.

Mrs. Claus and Willie Nelson and his guitar, Trigger, ended up having a pre-flight Christmas concert and sing-along in the North Pole gingerbread house that evening. Mrs. Claus got to make all the requests. She loved country music and because she knew all the words to Willie's songs, she got to sing along with him. They sang 'Blue Eyes Cryin' In The Rain' from the Red Headed Stranger album, 'Luckenbach, Texas' from Waylon & Willie, even 'Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys' from The Essential Highwaymen album. They ended up singing Mrs. Claus's two favorites, 'On The Road Again' and 'Always On My Mind', twice. The two happy country music lovers laughed and clapped after each song. Willie even had two more servings of his grandma's buttermilk biscuits and chocolate gravy afterwards.

Before they knew it, Santa Claus came stomping snow in through the doorway, and boomed out, "Ho! Ho! Ho! Willie, my boy, it's time to get on the road again!"

Mrs. Claus and Willie looked at each other and groaned good-naturedly at Santa's lame 'dad' joke. Suddenly, Mrs. Claus scrambled across the room to fetch a large, gaily-decorated autograph book.

"You can't go flying off into the night without autographing my Christmas guest book, Willie. Everyone who has visited here throughout the centuries has signed it. Let's see now," she said, thumbing through it. "Do you want to sign under W for Willie or N for Nelson?"

"W for Willie," he decided and signed his autograph, with a good deal of historical wonderment, between (George) Washington and Winston (Churchill).

Moments later, while flying south-by-southeast toward Ontario, Canada, Santa Claus told Willie Nelson about Migizi. "I'm telling you, Willie, this child can talk to horses. I can hear him because I'm me. You know, Christmas magic and all, but nobody else can hear him because he's on the spectrum and non-verbal."

Santa explained what Migizi, a nine-year-old Ojibwe boy who was enrolled in the Equine Assisted Learning (EAL) program at the Mādahókí Farm in Lepean, Ontario, had written to him. Migizi loved the Ojibwe Spirit Horses who lived at the horse rescue, educational and cultural facility. Every horse was the heart of the EAL program there based on the Ojibwe's Seven Grandfather Teachings of: Truth, Wisdom, Love, Bravery, Respect, Humility and Honesty. The Spirit Horses were sturdy little ponies who helped him to learn and always said comforting and encouraging things to him.

Migizi also loved chess. His dearest Christmas wish was to have a chess set where all the knights were in the image of the Ojibwe Spirit Horse.

Santa Claus and Willie Nelson crept through Migizi's living room up to the Christmas tree and distributed the specially-made chess set and all the other presents for Migizi's family. Afterwards, they sat down to partake of boo-dnin, an Ojibwe delicacy of steamed sugar and spices, before heading out to gift the rest of Canada with Christmas cheer.

Later, flying across the Atlantic Ocean in a reindeer driven sleigh with Santa Claus was just about the best Christmas present nonagenarian Willie Nelson ever got. He marvelled at snow falling from a starry sky, at wind that didn't blow his cowboy hat off, and at the physical vitality and teen-boy hunger that he felt. Every observation was met with the same explanation. "It's Christmas magic, Willie."

The duo swept all across Europe delivering Christmas joy and continued east into Mongolia where Santa, better known as Grandpa of Winter, needed to visit the house of Tuya and her mom. "Tuya is a perfect name for this little girl, Willie. It means ray of light in Mongolian, and she truly is one. Everybody loves her, including the takhi," Santa said.

"Takhi?"

"Yep, takhi. We know them as Przewalski's horse. They're very rare and live mainly in the central steppes of Asia. In fact, where we're going right now."

"Cool. I've never seen one."

"Let's go say 'hi' to the herd, then! I'm sure they'll be happy to see Rudolph and the rest."

Santa's sleigh sailed into the airspace above the vast Hustai National Park outside of Mongolia's capital, Ulambaatar. Standing in the moonlight at the edge of a forest, a herd of takhi horses jerked their heads upward and neighed raucously in joyous greeting when they spotted the flying reindeer and sleigh.

Tuya, our little ray of light, loved the horses that her animal husbandry scientist mother studied. Tuya and her mom lived in the residents' quarters at Hustai Park where they both could be close to them; to study them for her mom and to love them for Tuya.

Santa told Willie that Tuya's letter was one of the earliest he'd ever received. She had sent it back in the spring. In it, Tuya explained how one of the takhi had giving birth to a beautiful, little colt, but then rejected him. It broke her tender, young heart. The colt was taken in and bottle-fed by Tuya's mom, but Tuya knew that the baby missed his horse mom. Then, she got an idea.

Tuya had heard stories of nomadic camel herders in the Mongolian Gobi desert who could get camel moms to re-adopt a rejected baby, simply by playing songs to them on a horsehead fiddle called a Morin Khuur. The herders used melodies from the fiddle alongside special low-harmonic types of songs to heal the mother camel's stress and encourage her to take the baby back. Tuya was certain it would work on horses, too! She wrote a very nice letter to Santa explaining how good she's been, and could he please bring her a Morin Khuur?

Santa Claus placed the exquisitely carved horsehead fiddle for Tuya under her Christmas tree. Its scroll was curved in the image of a takhi and down the long neck and box-shaped body were two strings. The bow was made of horse hair from a takhi's tail. Even though it was called a fiddle, the square-shaped instrument was played more like a cello. Tuya would be soothing mother horses in no time, Santa was certain.

Santa and Willie enjoyed a lovely treat of buuz, the national food of Mongolia, all wrapped in a mutton dumpling and washed it down with airag, a Mongolian fermented horse milk drink.

"Different, but delicious!" Willie pronounced.

Willie Nelson really did like all the Christmas magic. He could get used to this! The travelling. The food. The people. The horses. The Christmas traditions. Joy to the world!

Santa Claus and Willie Nelson zipped all over that joyous world. They went to the South American continent to gift Christmas cheer to the Criollo horse caregivers in Uruguay, the Marwari horse lovers in India, and the dedicated horse rescuers on Fiji. They snacked on pan dulce, a sweet bread with confectionary toppings, in Montevideo. In Rajasthan, they munched down kulkuls, a sweet bite of coconut milk, flour and sugar. And in Navua, at the Horse Sanctuary Fiji, Santa and Willie went to town on vakalolos, a popular sweet and smoky Fijian dessert made of grated coconut, cassava and spices, rolled in a banana leaf and steamed underground.

On the way back to Texas, Willie lounged in the sleigh, feeling the Christmas love and hoping they fulfilled every Christmas wish of every boy and girl. Up front, Santa chortled under his breath, "Here it comes. They all ask the same question." And he was right. Over the years, Santa's helpers had all asked the same question because they all had a big heart.

"Did we get everybody, Santa?" Willie Nelson asked that year.

Rudolph and his flying reindeer team pulled Santa's sleigh toward central Texas and Willie's Luck Ranch. Willie was wondering if he should wake Annie up to tell her about his extraordinary Christmas adventure. Actually, being plum tuckered out as he was, he doubted he could stay awake long enough to tell her anything. But, it was a happy tired. You know, the way you feel after a job well done helping others.

Willie Nelson spotted Luck Ranch from high above in Santa's sleigh and closed his eyes for a second in gratitude as he always did when he came home. The next moment he was gone.

"Home. Family. Horses. Music," Willie Nelson said contentedly in his sleep from the living room couch, until the sound of jingling bells coming from his rooftop abruptly woke him up.

Willie leapt from the couch, pulled on his boots and hurried toward the door. He wanted to say good-bye to Santa. His hand hesitated at the door knob. Maybe he had been dreaming. What if it was all in his imagination? Naw, Santa Claus is real, he assured himself and scurried outside.

Sure enough. The nine bales of hay Willie's great-grandchildren had set out for Rudolph and his flying reindeer team were eaten.

Willie Nelson looked upward into the starry Christmas sky and spotted Santa Claus guiding his sleigh home toward the North Pole. "I know you can't hear me from here Santa, but I'll see ya! Don't ever forget about us and the horses!"

Santa Claus, who could hear Willie Nelson loud and clear, called out, "Ho! Ho! Ho! You're always on my mind!"

A jingle, jingle, jingle of bells accompanied the most cherished of all Christmas sayings from Santa Claus himself. It boomed over Luck Ranch, the town of Spicewood Springs, the state of Texas and all around the world.

"Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!"

*******

*Bobbie and Willie Nelson's Grandma's Buttermilk Biscuits and Chocolate Gravy

Biscuits
2½ cups self-rising white flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoon baking soda
4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter
1 cup buttermilk
Flour for dusting

Chocolate gravy
1½ cups sugar
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tablespoon unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons cornstarch, optional

To make the biscuits:
Preheat the oven to 450° F. Grease a baking sheet.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder, sugar and baking soda in a large bowl.
With a pastry blender or fork, cut in the butter until the mixture is crumbly.
Stir in the buttermilk and mix until a soft dough forms.
Turn the dough out onto a clean work surface dusted with flour and pat into a ¾-inch-thick circle. Using a 2-inch round cutter or glass, cut the dough into 12 biscuits, gently reshaping the scraps as necessary.
Place the biscuits on the prepared baking sheet and bake for approximately 8 minutes or until puffed and golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool slightly.

To make the chocolate gravy:
Whisk together the sugar, cocoa powder and flour in a medium saucepan.
Slowly whisk in 3 cups of water, followed by the vanilla. Turn the heat to medium and bring the mixture to a boil.
Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes, whisking constantly.
To create a thicker gravy, blend together the cornstarch with 2 tablespoons of cold water in a small bowl. Transfer this mix to the chocolate gravy and whisk the gravy over low heat until thickened

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