It is not every day your dream comes true and at the same time, you help make dreams come true for others. I have been lucky that I have now been able to realise 3 out of my 4 life-long dreams: ski the Alps, open a used book store play Santa Claus, and become the first Jewish pope. Yesterday I finally had the opportunity to play Santa at the A-to-Z Ovoda, a local international nursery school.  I must admit, I was more than a little nervous and was <!-- pagebreak -->wide awake at 4am thinking how to answer those difficult questions kids have the habit of zonking you with like, "are you real?," and "will you die?" These are the questions my friends Joe and Mary Walker got up at Superkids the week before. Joe, with over 70 years of wisdom behind him and 2 kids answered, "Santa will be here as long as there are children and love." I got lucky that BKV cancelled their planned public transport strike and got up there well in time to get into the professional costume they had layed out for me. Faydras, Santa's lovely helper helped me adjust hair, beard, belt etc. One quickly realises that putting on a Santa costume is almost as complicated as putting together IKEA furniture. The directions are there, but the pieces don't seem to match. The first trip to the toilet after a few plates of cookies and milk also had me wondering how the hell fat men piss? Do they all sit down to pee? I could not see over my belly to aim, even when I squeezed the pillow in. Strangely, I also got into the habit of referring to myself in the third-person - Santa this and Santa that. Then it was showtime. I visited 5 classes one-by-one, all of which had pre-arranged song signals for when I should enter (between times hiding in the kitchen...never lock Santa in the kitchen for 20 minutes with plates of kokusz golyo/chocolate-coconut balls!). With a big "Ho Ho Ho, Merry Christmas!" kids started screaming, some in excitement, some in absolute terror. Yes, some kids have a Santa-phobia. Santa's helper whispered every child's name into my ear as I called them up for their gifts. Some made baraccuda-like attacks on their present, grabbing them and darting away. Others wanted to sit on Santa's knee or whisper what they want for Christmas. Most requests were reasonable, but a few might have to wait a few years for fulfillment like the castle, horse and snowmobile. But hell, I got to play Santa, so why can't their dreams come true sometime too? For me, the best was when they sat on my knee and whispered what they wanted for Christmas, and also when a class gave me beautiful drawings they had made for me.