The glass castle 

1     I never believed in Santa Claus. 

2     None of us kids did. Mom and Dad refused to let us. They couldn't afford 

expensive presents, and they didn't want us to think we weren't as good as other 

kids who, on Christmas morning, found all sorts of 

fancy

 toys under the tree that 

were 

supposedly

 left by Santa Claus. So they told us all about how other kids 

were deceived by their parents, how the toys the grown-ups claimed were made by 

little 

elves

 wearing bell caps in their 

workshop

 at the North Pole actually had 

labels on them saying MADE IN JAPAN. 

3     "Try not to look down on those other children," Mom said. "It's not their 

fault that they've been 

brainwashed

 into believing silly myths." 

4     We celebrated Christmas, but usually about a week after December 25, when 

you could find perfectly good 

bows

 and wrapping paper that people had thrown away 

and 

Christmas 

trees 

discarded

on 

the 

roadside

that 

still 

had 

most 

of 

their 

needles 

and even some silver 

tinsel

 hanging on them. Mom and Dad would give us a bag of 

marbles

or 

a 

doll 

or 

a 

slingshot

that 

had 

been 

marked 

way 

down 

in 

an 

after-Christmas 

sale. 

5     Dad lost his job at the 

gypsum

 mine after getting in an argument with the 

foreman

, and when Christmas came that year, we had no money at all. On Christmas 

Eve, 

Dad 

took 

each 

of 

us 

kids 

out 

into 

the 

desert 

night 

one 

by one. 

I 

had 

a 

blanket 

wrapped around me, and when it was my turn, I offered to share it with Dad, but 

he said no thanks. The cold never bothered him. I was five that year and I sat 

next to Dad and we looked up at the sky. Dad loved to talk about the stars. He 

explained to us how they 

rotated

 through the night sky as the earth turned. He 

taught us to identify the 

constellations

 and how to 

navigate

 by the North Star. 

Those shining stars, he liked to point out, were one of the special 

treats

 for