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REAL DEAL SANTA gives greatest gift to families with dying kids

It turns out the North Pole is closer than you think. It’s just a short drive from downtown Cleveland.

It turns out the North Pole is closer than you think. It’s just a short drive from downtown Cleveland.

It's where the Santa saves the BEST GIFTS for kids who are dying, and for their families long after they've lived through the worst day of their lives.

He's Santa who Sees The Possible, and he has spent years making it happen for 172,000 kids and counting.

There are families who say they found faith the same time they found Santa and his lifetime commitment to kids who may not see another Christmas, or one at all.

So the newest blueprint for the next building at the North Pole is for something you may never have seen coming to the place Santa Claus calls home.

It all started 36 years ago.

A young boy named Joey, bald with a scar across his head, came straight from the hospital, crawled up on Santa's lap.

But instead of asking for anything for himself, he chose a gift for his mom instead.

“He said, Santa, you know I’m dying. Could you just make my mommy happy?” Santa recalls like it was yesterday. “And mom just wanted one last picture. One last Christmas.”

With that, the minister of Merry was on a mission. A mission to get to as many terminally sick kids as he could.

“Very quickly after that we started seeing every kid in the hospital. So now we sell all the children from Cincinnati to Pittsburgh,” says Santa.

And thousands even come to Santa, at the North Pole of course!

Santa built Santa’s Hideaway Hollow just for them.

It has an ice cream store, a general store, a tailor shop, and even the real deal reindeer.

Still, something was missing. But not for long.

A chapel is now scheduled to be built by next summer. It’s on the way because Santa has seen so many kids and families find faith, sometimes for the first time, in the hardest time of their lives.

23-year-old Jordan Hu was always a believer, even though he spent his entire life dealing with one debilitating disability after another.

“Jordan knew he was going to pass away. He knew he was going to die,” says Jordan’s mom, Sally Hu.

But Jordan saw his friend Santa as a sort of gateway to heaven.

“He had to talk to Santa to know that he was going to be ok when he passed away,” says Hu.

And because Jordan's heart, soul, and mind were more like a 10-year-old, Santa remembers, “He was just so in love with Christmas.”

Sally remembers that her son “was determined to live through Christmas. And he did. He had to see Santa. He passed away January 4th.”

“My hardest trip was sitting down with Jordan telling him it was ok to die. That he would not be forgotten,” says Santa.

“They prayed together. That was huge for Jordan. His faith was very strong,” says Hu.

“And I told him to make way because someday I am going to come visit him,” says Santa.

But first things first. There’s a chapel to be built.

A chapel for all denominations, for all faiths.

A chapel that will stand in the name of Santa’s friends, like Jordan, the walls lined with pictures of those who have gone before.

"That will be a good memory. That will be nice to bring Jordan's picture here and he can be part of this place," says Hu.

“Our mission is very simple. We are all about family,” says Santa.

And the kindness so characteristic of Santa Claus is apparently contagious.

Companies are donating materials and services. Churches are raising money, all because they get it.

They see how Jordan and so many others live on at Santa’s Hideaway Hollow.

Who knew that chance meeting 36 years ago with Joey would be the genesis of so many live lifted, before they were lost?

“Every day I put on my red suit, I just think of Joey. I think of the families. No one can understand the pain they have,” Santa reflects.

“I carry a green bag with toys. I want to carry miracles,” Santa says from somewhere down deep inside where the memories of so many children lives.

But anyone who knows his story, knows Santa is himself a blessing, in so many ways, every day.

Most recently Santa gave 11-week-old baby Mary Vleugels and her parents the gift of a Christmas that wasn’t promised.

Mary had only days to live.

So Santa, like he always does, made a house call and celebrated Christmas in November.

The family even put up a Christmas tree for the only Christmas baby Mary and her parents Erin and Mark, would ever have together.

They had to bury baby Mary this past Monday.

But not before they made memories and took priceless pictures.

All compliments of Santa who sees to it that even in their saddest days, their hearts are full.

P.S. Just into Santa’s inbox Wednesday night, came this amazing letter:

My son Nathaniel is 3 years old and was diagnosed with a rare aggressive cancer at 12 months old. This January after 6 months of cancer free scans, my sweet son's cancer returned with even more aggression, and in August we were told we did not have many options to save his life.. We are currently traveling to Boston and stay there about 20 days out of the month and have been in a clinical trial doing this since August. We are here now and will not be celebrating Thanksgiving in Ohio, but we hope to be home for Christmas. I am trying to keep the nostalgia and make memories with our son while we travel..but with the way our travel time is to drive back and forth to Boston and Middlefield we are missing all the fun celebrations our hospitals are having at the Cleveland Clinic and here at Dana Farber in Boston. I am saddened that I may not get him to see a Santa and experience this cherished tradition..as he usually cannot be around crowds or many children due to his compromised immune system. I am so shocked and surprised that we are kinda neighbors!? I just read about you on Facebook from a friends posting of the interview that will air tonight back home on Channel 3. I am shocked I was unaware of this amazing magical world you have created for children. We have lived in Middlefield in Glen Valley Farms for the last 20 years and had not heard of your wonderful place. I have and continue to Pray to God for a miracle for our son, and he is an amazing little warrior superhero as he battles this enemy,cancer. He is getting old enough to finally understand the meaning of Christmas and has had a delayed speech development from the chemotherapies, radiation,and multiple facial/ mouth surgeries from where his cancer is. My Christmas wish that I wish you could grant is to eliminate all childhood cancer, and we pray someday God will hear all of us.. Who better next to God..but Santa to ask,..if you have any openings or times for Nathaniel to meet you.. I completely understand if you are already spoken for with other organizations and prior reservations. I just saw this and thought I would reach out and inquire on how to visit your North Pole. I have read all about your incredible journey that you have provided to so many families and children. I am truly in awe of your generosity and what you provide to those like myself now..who need to believe in something magical even if only for a small moment in time. God Bless you and Have a Blessed Thanksgiving..

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