Yes, Virginia, there IS a Santa Claus....

Today's blog was inspired by a photo I saw on a friend's Facebook page yesterday. Her granddaughter wasn't so sure about being alone, sitting on Santa's lap. The face was priceless, but what was even more wonderful is, that for years on end, as long as I can remember, the Santa whose lap she was sitting on, was her very own grandfather. My friend captioned the picture to say, "Cali wasn't so sure about Santa by herself. Lol. Some day she will realize who he really is!" It made me chuckle. I almost said out loud, in the voice of Lucy from the Santa Clause movies, "GO FISH YOU ARE SANTA!", (which happens to be one scene that will always make me tear up!)!  I still have to smile when I think about the jolly old St. Nick, himself. Santa Claus! Who doesn't love Santa?! I mean, of course, little ones are usually terrified when they are plopped onto the lap of this stranger, of this big guy in a white beard, white hair, red suit, and jolly HO HO HO. But....when they realize who and what Santa is....it is instant LOVE!

Santa! Remember when you were a child? The anticipation of Christmas was one of the best feelings ever. I remember always going to my maternal grandparent’s house on Christmas Eve for the family celebration followed by Christmas Eve services at church. It was a great way to pass time so that we weren’t clock watching! Oh the anticipation!!! When we would finally get home from church, I can remember my parents would always encourage my brothers and I to go ‘right to sleep’ so that Santa could come, because after all, he only came when we were fast asleep!!!! And much like many children around the world on December 24, I remember never being able to fall asleep that night before Christmas. I'd try my hardest to stay up all night long waiting for Santa Claus, pretending to be asleep when my parents would check in on me. I would sneak out of my bedroom and lay at the top of the stairs, looking down into the living room where our Christmas tree stood proudly, just to check to see if Santa Claus delivered the presents yet. It is all still very amazing to me: as a child, you never seem to catch your parents putting the presents under the tree, but yet, there's some point in the middle of the night when you’d wake up, sneak out, and WOW! there they were. And then I became a parent……

I tried my hardest, as a mom, to instill a love for Christmas in my daughters. We kept some holiday traditions I grew up with and created some of our own. One of my most favorite traditions centered around Santa. Christmas Eve, I would allow my daughters to sleep downstairs on the living room couch, in hopes of ‘catching Santa’. I remember my mom first telling me that this was not a good idea. What if the girls woke up while I was doing my job? What if it ruined Christmas for them because they would realize that there is no Santa? WHAT? No SANTA? Oh, but I challenged, there IS a Santa!!!! Santa Claus is in all of us. We all have the most wonderful power to become Santa. We all have the power to make somebody's holiday. And while the idea of my girls sleeping on the couch on Christmas Eve never ruined their belief in Santa, once they did become too old to really believe, I think I did a great enough job of instilling in them the idea that the SPIRIT OF SANTA CLAUS lives in all of us. My girls are now 16 and 23 and they both still look for gifts under the tree from 'Santa'. They still leave treats for Santa before they go to bed on Christmas Eve. They still become filled with childlike wonder on Christmas morning, when they come down the stairs (they no longer sleep on the couch) and see under the tree. Christmas doesn't have to be a downer just because someone doesn't believe in Santa. It is up to each and every one of us to make sure they believe in the Spirit of Santa Claus.

Aren't the holidays all about giving and sharing love, giving a gift to somebody just because you feel like giving and not expecting anything back? Isn't that what The Spirit of Santa Claus is all about? Santa gives gifts all over the world in some of the least likely of places. All he receives in return is an occasional cookie and a glass of milk (or at our house, ring bologna and beer!), but Santa just gives and gives with no expectation of a return gift. I remember one year, at our family Christmas party, my daughter decided to give Santa a present when he gave her the presents there with her name on them. It was certainly not something Santa expected and I am pretty sure it was something Santa has never forgotten.

This (and every) holiday season, you have a wonderful opportunity to let the Spirit of Santa shine!!!!!! We're almost two weeks away from Christmas and you have the opportunity to bring the Spirit of Santa to all the people in your life. Everyone you see or encounter on a regular basis – show them the Spirit of Santa. You already know what the best holiday gift you can give is: giving the gift of you.

Which brings me to my favorite reminder of the Spirit of Santa Claus…..I post this for you. Read it and never forget! He lives, he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now..... nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood. I believe in Santa Claus....I will always believe in Santa Claus!

Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus

By Francis P. Church, first published in The New York Sun in 1897. 

[See The People’s Almanac, pp. 1358–9.]

We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:

Dear Editor—

I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.” Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?

Virginia O’Hanlon

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Until tomorrow, my friends……let the SPIRIT OF SANTA CLAUS spring from you! You’ll be so happy you did!

Think Thankfully!!!