Oh, um. They definitely think you died at sea. I ended up bringing them the message and everything - guess when you vanish off a boat, people just assume...

[The Balladeer steps forward to flick the Santa robot off again.]

Yeah. Yeah, let's just...save that kind of thing for Halloween. [Or not. They won't get trick or treaters, so does it matter? He moves along, leaning over to peer at one of those lighted deer people put in their yard.] These are okay! Look, the heads just go up and down a little.