For more than 67 years, Santa Claus has been a very important part of my life and my family’s life.

As a child, I vaguely remember wanting this specific red-velvet dressed doll at the downtown Smithville Western Auto store. It was the major topic in my “Letter to Santa.”  Not unabashed, I asked Dad to drive me to the retail store on Christmas Eve to check on the “here or sold” status of my purported doll wearing the velvet red dress.  To my dismay, the little doll was still on the shelf, meaning Santa didn’t have her!!!  Needless to say, my shed tears told the complete story.  Poor little frightened doll, left all alone in the dark and dreary building with no one to talk too.

In historical retrospect, Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Knick, or Kris Kringle, is a legendary character, originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring children’s gifts during the late evening or overnight hours of Christmas Eve.  He brings toys and candy or coal or nothing, depending on whether the children were “naughty or nice.”  He accomplishes this with the aid of elves who make millions of toys in Santa’s Village at the North Pole, wrote Wikipedia.  Santa also had nine flying reindeer named Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Dunder, Blixen, and Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer who pulled his sleigh as he traveled in the air.  Many times, you could hear Santa and his nine special reindeers flying through the air or landing on a rooftop in DeKalb County, TN.

Wikipedia further explains that “Today’s modern Santa is based on folklore traditions.  He is usually depicted as a portly, jolly white-bearded old man, wearing spectacles (eye glasses) on his nose, and wearing a red coat with a white fur collar and cuffs, a black leather belt and boots, white fur-cuffed red trousers, and a bag full of gifts for children.  Santa also is portrayed as laughing in a way that sounds like Ho, Ho, Ho.”  This final image of Santa has been managed, used, and reinforced since around 1823.

Throughout adulthood, I always was so excited about Santa’s visit that on every Christmas morning before daylight, I would awaken my two sons, Jim and Mac, get them out of bed, and walk them into the living room to see what the Jolly Old Man left for them under the live tree.  

Years earlier, when Lucy and I were small children, we would wake up very early and run to the living room.  There, we always found the fireplace screen laying in the floor because Santa failed to place it upright as he exited the house. 

In another coincidence, the Easter bunny always littered the houses’ front brick sidewalk with raw carrot pieces!!!  Neither cleaned up their holiday surprises, but you could see where they had been. 

Another holiday memory.  I remember leaving Santa Claus my favorite Christmas book with lots of colored photos. He took it with him and I never saw it again.  I asked him about it at a department store’s “Pictures with Santa” and he acted like he knew nothing about it.  I was satisfied when Daddy said Rudolph probably ate it.  I was the guilty party        because I left Santa a cursive note telling him the book was a Christmas gift from me.

“Do you believe in Santa Claus?” can be answered by the following New York Sun newspaper editorial on September 21, 1897, entitled, “Yes, Virginia.  There is a Santa Claus.”  The following answer to Virginia’s question by Frances Pharcellus Church became one of the most famous editorials ever published. It reads as follows:

“IS THERE A SANTA CLAUS?

We take pleasure at answering at once and 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 friends say there is no Santa Claus.  Please tell me the truth.  Is there a Santa Claus?  Virginia O’Hanlon.”

And, Church’s most famous reply to Virginia’s question to the newspaper:

“Dear VIRGINIA. Your little friends are wrong. 

They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age.  They do not believe except what they know.  How dreary would that world be if there were no Santa Claus.  It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIA’S.  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 they didn’t 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 man or children see.  Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn?  Of course not, but that’s no proof they aren’t there.  Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders that are unseen or unseeable in the world.”

“You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there’s a veil covering the unseen world, which the strongest man, or even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart.  Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance can push aside that curtain and view and picture the superior beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real?

“Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world, there is nothing real and abiding,”

“No Santa Claus!  Thank GOD he lives, and he lives forever!  A thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.”

Much like VIRGINIA, Lucy and I would seriously question Dad about the believability of Santa Claus as we became older and more curious.  He always confidently said numerous times: “As long as you believe in Santa Claus, he will come to see you.  When you stop believing, he will stop coming.”

So, at ages 66 and 68, we do, and always have, believed in our North Pole comrade. And, every year, Santa always came down the chimney at our house and left many surprises.

Yes, my friends, Santa did bring me the little doll wearing the red velvet dress that I saw on display at James Ford’s Western Auto Store in Smithville, TN.  many years ago.