To Kids From 1 to 92

Here's the deal. I love Christmas. I blame it on my dad. He's a gung-ho Christmas man with a plan, and he's the reason my house looks like a Christmas wonderland. I feel the same way as he does. I love Christmas with all my heart. It isn't about the day, and the presents and all of that. It's about the whole spirit! I often say that I still believe in Santa Clause, and I know that doesn't make any sense, but it's because I really truly wish with all my heart that he was there at the North Pole. That sounds so cheesy and silly, but I can't help but wish there was a little bit of magic in the world. And that is what I love about Christmas, that even though there might not be any elves working away, no naughty-or-nice lists, and no fat old man eating the cookies on that plate in the living room, I can still feel the magic. The spirit of the season. We don't have to have Santa up there preparing for take-off with his reindeer, we make our own holiday magic. We remember what this holiday is all about, and we give each other things, help each other out, sing songs, write cards... it's all about the spirit and the magic. I have always, and will always believe in Santa Clause.

Now here's something my dad reads to us every year. Enjoy!

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 
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 have 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 make the noise inside, but 
there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest men, 
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.

p.s. now you should listen to this song.