Oh! You better watch out, you better not cry,
you better not pout, I’m tellin’ you why:
Santa Claus is coming to town.

There’s something almost painful yet delicious about a child who’s waiting for Christmas, counting the days, wishing and hoping, until on December 24 he can’t fall asleep.

It’s a variation on the waiting we do all our lives. We wait to be old enough to go to school, ride a bicycle, and drive an automobile. We wait to land a job or find the right person. We wait for a promotion, a raise, or retirement. And some of us wait decades for the Chicago Cubs to play in and win a World Series.