And so, it’s Christmas…

 

And so, it’s Christmas…

Grandma, Christmas 1992

When I was young, my grandmother emphatically insisted she still believed in Santa Claus. Just as firmly, I insisted, “Come on, Grandma. That is silly. Everyone knows Santa doesn’t really exist.” Yet, Grandma wouldn’t budge. She insisted there was, in fact, a Santa Claus.

Years later, as an adult, I think I finally understood what she meant. I believe my grandmother was referring to what Santa symbolizes, not necessarily the literal ‘person’ of Santa.

I have heard some say that Santa has ‘taken over’ the ‘real’ meaning of Christmas (the birth of Christ), but I’m not so sure. While Christmas and Yule have been celebrated for centuries, Santa is only about 200 years old.

Before Santa as we know him today, people in England believed in ‘Father Christmas,’ a man who dressed in green and went from home to home to feast with families, although he didn’t bring gifts to children. Didn’t Christ also go from place to place and break bread with many?

Santa’s origin stemmed from the Greek bishop, St. Nicholas of Myra (Turkey). He was a very generous man who helped people in need. He was made the patron saint of Amsterdam, and it was Dutch immigrants who brought to New York the belief in the gift-giver, Sinterklaas. Didn’t Christ also have gifts brought to his birth, and what about ‘gifts of the spirit’?

It was an American writer, Washington Irving, who first wrote about an old man in dark robes that arrived by a flying horse to give presents to children. That was followed by the famous poem, “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” written by Clement Clarke Moore. Our current interpretation of Santa seems to have stemmed from that poem. This was the first time we saw him going down chimneys or traveling in a sleigh pulled by flying reindeer. The illustrator for the book, Thomas Nast, added even more new ideas, including the elves, helpers to Santa, and the ‘naughty and nice’ children. Couldn’t the elves (helpers) be compared to the apostles and the naughty and nice children to “judgment”?

Of course, we cannot know the minds of these men when they wrote these stories, but it does seem possible Santa was always supposed to be symbolic of Christ, especially since he is the symbol of Christmas. Then again, these are just the ramblings of a non-Christian who happens to see some parallels… and yet, regardless of faith, the symbolism of his goodness shines through.

There is, however, another holiday that is shared during this same time. It is Yule. Christmas, as it is now celebrated by many, has its origins in Yule. While Christians see Christmas as the time of the birth of their sacrificial savior and may believe that Santa symbolizes excess or the commercialization of Christmas, Pagans differ by understanding ‘excess’ in and of itself.

There is a tree and a gift from Santa for the child. To that child, it is not about consumerism. A gift magically appears. For the adult, it is a way to give without expecting the child to be grateful to the parent. Nothing is expected in return. Rather, it is so that the child learns to trust in the world around him, to feel safe, and to believe that the world will provide him with his fair share.

The tree itself is not only a sign of nature as a gift, but it is the gift itself. It could be compared to the tree of life, to the connectedness of all living things and of all of nature itself.

No matter how you celebrate this time of year, whether you say Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Blessed Yule, or use another holiday greeting, I, for one, will keep believing in Santa. I choose to believe in those things he symbolizes: kindness, compassion, goodness, and generosity, because for me, not doing so would mean I have given up hope that there is still goodness in this world.

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"Is There a Santa Claus?" reprinted from the September 21, 1897, number of The New York Sun.

 

Yes, Virginia There is a Santa Claus…

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
115 West Ninety Fifth Street

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 external 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.