A Touch of Southern Grace : Happy Christmas Eve

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Happy Christmas Eve

I can hardly believe it is already Christmas Eve! I am happy to report that I have finally finished all of my Christmas shopping and am able to relax and just enjoy the holiday season. I have always enjoyed Children’s Christmas stories, they are so beautifully illustrated and written. One of my favorite family traditions is reading Twas The Night Before Christmas as a closing on Christmas Eve. As much as I love Twas The Night Before Christmas the story/letter of Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus has always held a special place in my heart. I love how the letter to Virginia is written and the message behind it. Even if at times you may not be able to see something it is important to hold onto what is good in life and embrace the magic that is in the acts of love, kindness, and generosity. I knew I wanted to share a Christmas story with you today and I debated between Twas the Night Before Christmas and Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus but in the end I decided to go with the latter because of the message behind the story. Wishing Everyone A Happy Christmas Eve!

{Via}

“DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is not 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

115 West Ninety-Fifth Street

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 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. 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 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 may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor 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 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 he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

~Response written by Francis Pharcellus