Christine Grimaldi
is a writer and former congressional reporter in Washington, D.C. She recently published a feature story in
Slate
on "straight spouses"—straight men and women who used to be married to gay partners—and has written essays on the language of sexual assault for
DAME Magazine
, schadenfreude for
The Morning News
, homesickness for
Washingtonian.com
, and the craft of writing for
Talking Writing
magazine.
My father must have bought the cheapest Santa costume he could find. He’s frugal, never cheap, but this getup broke the rule. Maybe the Santa costumes with luxuriant white whiskers curling halfway to the floor and plush red jackets cinched by real leather belts were just way out of his price range. The original beard wasn’t so bad, but my father loaned it to another Santa in need, and a rogue Rudolph, unfortunately, ate it.
