Virginia, Your Little Friends Are Wrong

'Twas the day before Christmas, and all through the blog, not a creature was reading, except for the dog... Okay, fine, Heidi can't read, but if she could, she would. Here is the 5th volume and seven of my favorite things connected to Christmas.

ONE

Favorite Christmas movie: A Muppet Christmas Carol


I realize this is a bold statement to say, seeing as there are so many fantastic Christmas movies out there, but it's true. Yes, we watch it on VHS too, while we churn butter and sew our own clothes:





("Our assets are frozen!")

TWO

My favorite Christmas song: "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" and I like this version with Trace Bundy and Josh Garrels a lot a lot a lot:

THREE

We watch this movie as a family every year: Atta boy, Clarence!

FOUR

Favorite Christmas book: The Christmas Mystery by Jostein Gaardner

Without spoiling the plot, it's about a little boy and his family who buy an Advent calender. Inside each day is a story about a little girl who chases a little lamb through time to the birth of Christ, picking up fellow travelers (and angels) along the way. A really great read for all ages!

FIVE

Favorite Christmas Story: Upgraded!

SIX

Being in a big family makes Christmas extra fun and special. This rendition of "The Twelve Days of a Large Family Christmas" is hilarious!





"Yes, they're all ours." :)


Okay, and I love this one too; as you can tell, I like clever renditions of the "12 Days of Christmas." It's a seasonally-isolated song, much like only eating peeps at Easter. I know Jimmy Fallon recently re-sang this on his show, but I like the John Denver version:





Miss Piggy is such a hoot!

SEVEN

Favorite Christmas history lesson: When little Virginia wrote into The Sun and asked if there is a Santa Claus. This makes my heart sing:


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.
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 [what] 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.


--from an unsigned editorial published on September 21, 1897; by Francis Pharcellus Church of New York's The Sun.

A blessed and Merry Christmas to all of you!

According to Reuters, Christians in Iraq have been advised not to openly celebrate Christmas this year. Churches have been receiving threats and there is murmurs about Sunni Islamist militants attempting to drive Christians from the country. This past Halloween, insurgents stormed a Catholic Church during the Mass, killing 52 Iraqis. As we openly celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace, please keep the Church and all persecuted Christians in your prayers.