Between the Bridges: Santa’s Alive and Well
If you venture outside prior to sunrise or just after sunset on Christmas Day you will be treated to something we haven’t seen since 1977 – a full moon on Christmas day! There will not be another Christmas Day full moon until 2034 so try not to miss this one!
I am always amazed at the self-righteous attitudes of certain individuals who try and go out of their way to ruin Christmas for children. Case in point: several years ago I chanced upon a talk radio show where the guest was discussing Santa Claus with the host. The guest, a psychology professor, was recommending that parents should not “…lie to their children about the existence of Santa Claus…” as the children will inevitably come to know the truth as they grow up either from their older siblings and friends or by some other means. The psychologist stated that upon learning the truth, the child “…might feel betrayed and begin to wonder about other lies his or her parents may have told.” (Remember Psych 101? “A Freudian slip is when you say one thing and mean your mother.”) I was infuriated with this pompous, over-educated, Grinch-like voice on the radio until I realized that that the field of psychology has always been the refuge of those medical students who faint at the sight of blood!
Of course there is a Santa Claus and I can prove it. Back in the late 1800s, the Sun was one of the three most influential newspapers in New York, the other two being the NY Times and the NY Herald Tribune. Of the three publications, the Times still publishes today but both the Sun and the Herald Tribune have long been relegated to the dusty annals of newspaper history. Nevertheless, each year right around December, the Sun rises from the forgotten ashes of long forgotten print, not unlike like the Ghost of Christmas Past in Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” when parents sit around a brightly lit Christmas Tree, swirling their hot cocoa with red and white striped candy canes as they tell their children of the story of eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon who wrote a letter to the editor of New York’s Sun asking if Santa Claus was real and the quick response to her letter, which was printed as an unsigned editorial on September 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church, “Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus” has since become history’s most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps
Additionally, several years ago I was asked to “stand in” for Santa Claus who was busy at the North Pole and pay a visit to the children of Broad Channel at P.S. 47. As each child was presented to me I would smile and place them on my lap and ask each of them for their name and if they had been a good boy or girl during the year. When I asked one young boy named Tommy about his behavior, his eyes flew wide open and, after quickly looking around the room, looked down at the floor and in a low voice, nervously asked me, “Why, what have you heard?” I responded by laughing long and hard and assured the young man that he had no reason to worry because he was on my good list.
I guess what I am trying to say is that, for many children, Santa Claus is truly the final frontier of childhood innocence and as adults who benefited from his magic as children, we should all strive to keep his magic alive during every Christmas season. If we can make a child, or anyone for that matter, smile for a moment – make them forget the real world for just a little while – to me, that’s the real magic of Santa Claus and I can state for the record that Santa’s magic is alive and well in Broad Channel.
Broad Channel – Why would anyone want to live anywhere else?
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