More than a century ago, a young girl named Virginia O’Hanlon wrote to a New York City paper to ask whether Santa Claus really existed. New York Sun editor Francis Church’s editorial reply, titled “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus” has become a storied part of Christmas folklore in the U.S.
Many newspapers re-publish that editorial response at this time of year, but that is not our purpose in this column.
Rather, it is to support Church’s claim using a couple of closer-to-home examples from the past week.
Port Hardy’s Tiffany Charlie found Santa Claus can wear many different uniforms — and access entrances other than chimneys — when a bag of gifts she had purchased was brought to her door by RCMP personnel after it fell from the back of a truck Dec. 15.
From the alert workers who picked up the bag, to the officers who went above and beyond to spread the word, to the communal network of social media, Santa employed numerous helpers to assure the Charlie household a merry Christmas this year.
And Port Alice showed us Santa can also be the recipient of gift-giving, as the Village named its hockey arena for longtime volunteer and general do-gooder Doug Bondue Friday night.
Church assured young Virginia that Santa could be seen not through one’s eyes, but only through “faith, fancy, poetry, love and romance.”
We’re pretty sure they were all on display here last weekend. And that’s something worth believing in.
Merry Christmas, everybody.