Joseph Pick

A Special Christmas Memory
There was something about that Christmas nearly four years ago that inspired Joseph Pick to go beyond the normal holiday routine. Not only did Mr. Pick decorate his home in Hoboken, N.J., and buy the usual assortment of presents (hiding them in black garbage bags) for his wife, Marie Puccio-Pick, and his daughter, Jeannette, but he also decided to pose as Santa Claus.

It was a major undertaking that involved secretly buying a Santa suit, slipping into it unnoticed and arriving at his in-laws' house on Christmas Eve. And it went off so well that he even surprised his wife. But he made one little mistake: The label on his sweatshirt was visible through a seam in the suit. Jeannette, now 9, and her cousin, Julianna Antonucci, recognized it right away.

Mr. Pick, a vice president at Fiduciary Trust, was quick with an explanation when confronted afterward: Because Santa was far too busy, the visitor was actually an elf. In fact, Mr. Pick went on, he was an elf.

After her father became missing on Sept. 11, Jeannette reminded her mother about that Christmas Eve. "Is Daddy still an elf?" she asked. "I said, 'Sure, he is,' " Ms. Puccio-Pick recalled. Though it was months before Christmas, Jeannette went about making her Christmas list.