# Christmas Stories From Jaleel White, Danny DeVito, Jay Glazer, and Denisha Allen

**Creator:** Dad Saves America
**Platform:** youtube
**Duration:** 6m
**Source:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ytc-0e7R244

## Summary

The conversation revolves around heartfelt Christmas experiences shared by the speakers, highlighting acts of kindness and cherished childhood memories. One speaker recounts fulfilling children's letters to Santa, while the other shares personal anecdotes of family traditions and the magic of Christmas surprises.

- The speaker fulfilled children's letters to Santa by visiting a post office and delivering gifts to those in need.
- He involved his fight team in the process, emphasizing the impact of community service during the holidays.
- The initiative grew as more people wanted to help, including notable figures like Tiki Barber.
- Childhood memories include humorous and poignant moments related to discovering the truth about Santa Claus.
- One speaker recalls a memorable Christmas where his parents staged a surprise after initially pretending he received no gifts.
- The joy of receiving unexpected presents, despite financial struggles, highlights the importance of creating special moments for children.
- The discussion reflects on the transition from childhood innocence to understanding the realities of life, particularly regarding Santa Claus.

## Transcript

[[0:01]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ytc-0e7R244&t=1s)
- There's a great story about you and Strahan making a Christmas special. You wanna share that with our audience? - No, no, it was me and Tiki. Here's what I did, again- - What did you do for Christmas? - There's ways that I knew
I could be of service. I think I just got the job at CBS. So that was for 50 grand by the way. And so I went to the
post office in New York, the zip code 10001, and when kids send letters
to Santa, it goes there, but they actually divide 'em up.

[[0:29]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ytc-0e7R244&t=29s)
And you can go in and I
would get these letters from these kids. - Oh, they'll give you those. - They'll give you letters.
- Christmas letters. - Yeah, yeah.
- The Santa letters. Sounds like that would
be like a federal crime or something.
- Not in the '90s. - But not if it's to Santa. (laughs) - So, listen, Santa's
breaking into people's houses anyway through the chimney so it's breaking and entering. - Yeah.
- I'm Jewish.

[[0:48]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ytc-0e7R244&t=48s)
I'm like, "What's wrong with you people? "You let this guy break
and enter in your house?" And I would go there, get these letters, and a lot of them were
really heartbreaking. They just want pants with no holes so they don't get made fun of, or a blanket, a lot of
'em are heartbreaking. And I would actually
go and I would fulfill, starting with like three of these letters. And then I took my fight team and, 'cause some of these are really bad areas, I couldn't go myself, and we went in there and I
would knock on these doors and I would say, "Hey, is
there a such and such here?

[[1:22]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ytc-0e7R244&t=82s)
"Well, Santa sent to us. "We got your letter." And oh, man, talk about. There's no way to be in the gray when you do something like that. Well, eventually, as
people started hearing what I was doing, they all
wanted to start doing it. So I started getting more
and more and more letters and started giving 'em
out to different friends and people who had
restaurants and this and that, and started becoming a thing. And then it went back,
Tiki would come with me.

[[1:44]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ytc-0e7R244&t=104s)
So all of a sudden you had
the starting running back of the Giants, he's showing up like. - Yeah, that's pretty awesome. - Yeah, it was pretty awesome. - Did you ever don the Santa Claus outfit? - No, no, no, no. - Not even, kike, not even an elf hat? - No, no, I didn't do that. No. No. - If you could relive
one memory with your dad or a father figure, which day would it be?

[[2:02]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ytc-0e7R244&t=122s)
- Now I'm using my brother
'cause he's my father figure and he's been there for me. One year we got together at
his house to have Christmas. We spent the night, we
put cookies out for Santa, cookies and milk out for
Santa by the Christmas tree. We grew up poor, so we knew
Santa Claus was not real. Like, nobody's gonna give credit to Santa when they struggled to buy these presents. You know, like, no, we bought those.

[[2:27]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ytc-0e7R244&t=147s)
And it was so cheesy,
'cause we knew, you know, we already knew like Santa
did not give us these gifts. And he was like, "You gotta go to bed. "You gotta, you know, go to sleep "or you're not gonna get any presents." So, and then the next day, one of the first presents we opened were, like, matching sweatsuits. Typical '90s sweatsuits. Like, that material that goes like (imitates material rubbing). - Yep, yep. - Now when I look at those
pictures, I remember like, that was so much fun.

[[2:50]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ytc-0e7R244&t=170s)
But those sweatsuits were- - Were terrible?
- Yeah. They were kind of ugly. - You know, when you're learn
that there's no Santa Claus. - Oh yeah, that's a tough one as a parent. It's a transition. - But, like, as the kid, you're just like, "God, of course there's no
Santa Claus, like, whatever." And I had two younger
siblings who still knew that there was Santa and he let me stay up and do the Santa preparations
for when the other kids went to bed, you know?

[[3:25]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ytc-0e7R244&t=205s)
- I remember that. Like, it was yesterday. That's amazing. - You know, I got to eat
the cookies and make a mess and spill the milk.
- Make a mess. - And then we would always
put carrots and celery out for the reindeer.
- For the reindeer! - Yeah, yeah. - Did you eat those or? - What we'd do, yeah, you tell him. - He was like, "This is what you do." And he like, this was his tutorial, was chewing up carrots and then spitting them
out all over the stoop.

[[4:01]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ytc-0e7R244&t=241s)
- All over the fireplace. - It was so much fun. (Danny and Lucy imitate carrot munching) Like, just spraying carrots and celery. - [John] Oh, that's great. - Well, 'cause the
reindeer, they were sloppy. - Yeah, and they were in a rush. - They were in a hurry. - And so many houses to go to.
- Get to the next house. - Yeah.
- They're crazy animals. They're not neat. - Yeah.
- Yeah. And that's a really, I remember that.

[[4:21]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ytc-0e7R244&t=261s)
- Yeah, yeah. - That's really sweet
because you are sweet. - Aw. (festive bells jingle) - I was seven years old and
that's the best Christmas ever, because my parents pretended
they didn't get me anything. And so I saw nothing
coming under the tree. And so my dad came in and I
was crying in my bunk bed, and my dad came in and
gave me a wrapped up can of freaking tennis balls. And I'm like, you know?
(John laughs) Really, you just open that (chuckles), "Thanks, bro."

[[4:50]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ytc-0e7R244&t=290s)
Right? - So like that's a real
head fake right there. - Right? So he and my mom were
getting their giggles off at my 7-year-old expense. And then he comes back probably like, about five minutes later, and gets me outta my bunk bed
after midnight, and he goes, "I think Santa did bring a
little bit more than that though. "You might wanna go check." That was my dad. He was that corny guy
that liked to play out every little beat of
the story of the prank.

[[5:15]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ytc-0e7R244&t=315s)
And I get up and there's more toys under this tree than I just. It was my list times ten. I had piano synthesizers,
I had Mr. T dolls. - Yes! - I had a new tennis racket. I had this robot that I
wanted called Omnibot. You can look it up. It was the biggest deal. It was $299 and it was like at
the top shelf at Toys "R" Us. And it was just nonstop wrapping.

[[5:48]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ytc-0e7R244&t=348s)
I'm an only child too,
so I have no competition. This is just me going at it with paper. And my parents had filed for bankruptcy. - [John] Oh, man, that's tough. So this is this moment for
them where they're like, "You know what, we're
gonna let this be special." - That's parenting. (festive music)