The Idler, Monday, December 24, 2012

Of course there's a Santa CHRISTMAS works its special magic. Does Santa, or does he not, come down the chimney tonight to leave presents for the kids? The question was answered with great precision and clarity as long ago as 1897 when a little girl named Virginia O'Hanlon wrote to the New York Sun.   "Dear Editor, "I am eight 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?" The New York Sun's response: "Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the scepticism of a sceptical 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 ... "Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies ... 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 ... "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." Great stuff! Presumably written after the New York Sun Christmas party. Nothing like a wetstone (as we in the newspaper trade call the Christmas party) to unleash the creative juices.

Christmas writings

DICKENS has more or less cornered the market in writing about Christmas, what with his jolly bustle and good food and drink in the cheery firelight – not to mention the rescue of Scrooge from misanthropy.

But how about Hemingway: "Paris with the snow falling. Paris with the big charcoal braziers outside the cafes, glowing red. At the cafe tables, men huddled, their coat collars turned up, while they finger glasses of grog Americain … It is wonderful in Paris to stand on a bridge across the Seine looking up through the softly curtaining snow … It is very beautiful in Paris and very lonely at Christmas time."

Yep, he's got it.

And then O Henry with The Gift Of The Magi, his story of the down and out young couple in a New York tenement. He sells his prized pocket watch to buy tortoiseshell combs for her lovely long hair. She's had her cut off and sold, to buy him a watch chain.

"The Magi, as you know, were wise men--wonderfully wise men--who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones … And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. O all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the Magi."

Yep, O Henry has also got it. May I wish a happy and blessed Christmas to one and all.

Tailpiece

KNOCK, knock!

Who's there?

Hannah.

Hannah who?

Hannah partridge in a pear tree …

Last word

My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others. Come to think of it, why do we have to wait for Christmas to do that? - Bob Hope