Season 3 Episode 52: Is There A Santa Claus?
I am your host, Rebecca Budd. I look forward to sharing this moment with you.
December 24th Christmas Eve has arrived. With the last-minute shopping completed, we ready our hearts for this special evening anticipated since the beginning of December. All the plans have been made, the gifts have been wrapped and the baking completed.
All of December has been in anticipation of Christmas Day. And yet, as I look back, it was Christmas Eve that held the magic. The lights of the Christmas tree flickered, spreading a warmth around us as we sipped hot chocolate and waited for Santa Claus to arrive.
There is reliable confirmation that dates to 1897, when eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon wrote her famous letter.
You may recall that it all began when Virginia asked her father, Dr. Philip O’Hanlon, whether there really was a Santa Claus. Her father’s answer was brilliant. Instead of responding himself, he suggested that she write direct to The Sun, one of New York’s most prominent newspapers at the time. He assured her that “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.”
Virginia received a response from veteran newsman, Francis Pharcellus Church, a lead editorial writer for the New York Sun. Francis Church, who had seen great suffering as a war correspondent during the American Civil War, was a known skeptic, hardened cynic who had little tolerance for superstitious beliefs. And yet, he recognized the need for hope and faith in society. Perhaps it is when we see sorrow and grief, we are more able to answer a call for affirmation in the goodness of life. For that is what Virginia looked for when she asked whether there is a Santa Claus.
More than a century later, the article written by Francis Church still maintains it standing as the most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps.
Dear friends, may the joy of Christmas Eve surround you and yours, with love, warmth, and wonder. Together, may we embrace hope and expectation as we enter a new year.
