Easterling: A Santa story for today’s 8-year-olds

To the editor:

As Christmas approaches, I am reminded of a question asked by a little 8-year-old girl who had been arguing with her friends of whether or not Santa Claus existed. When she asked her daddy, he replied by saying, “If it’s written in The (New York) Sun, then it must be so.” Thus, Virginia O’Hanlon wrote a letter to the local paper, The Sun, asking if Santa Claus really existed.

letter_logoAt our house, Santa always came. We were taught when you stop believing, he stops coming. It’s 1973, I’m 16 years old, and for some time I had dreamed of a hope chest, or cedar chest. This was going to be tight Christmas so I never expressed what I wanted “Santa to bring me”.

I was selling ads for the year book at Richmond Senior High School and walked into Bowles Furniture Company in Rockingham as I was sure Mr. James Bowles would purchase an ad from me. As I entered the store, there it was. The prettiest piece of furniture I had ever seen. Mr. Bowles inquired if I liked it, as I am sure he could tell by the look on my face he knew the answer to his question. I never mentioned this to mama and daddy.

Christmas Eve arrived. The annual festivities were completed. My sister and I retired to bed. At some point I woke to a commotion outside. I looked out to see what was going on. I saw a red light in the drive. Laughing to myself, I thought, Rudolph. But it was a Bowles Furniture truck arriving at our house just after midnight. I watched as daddy and Mr. Bowles unloaded the cedar chest I had yearned for several weeks before.

In 1897, 8-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon questioned whether or not Santa Claus existed. In 2014, I am sure there are eight year olds asking the same question. As with Francis P. Church, a journalist for The Sun, I can say, “Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus… No Santa Claus? Thank God! He lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virgina, nay, 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.”

Pamela Easterling
Rockingham

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  • victoria smith

    Santa never came to our house and that was and still is OK by me. We did not need or want “it/him.” We had the one that could,would and did. There is a “GOD” and he lives for all eternity. He makes “All” things possible. “Santa” Ba Hum Bug. It is my opinion that grown folks should know better than to promote such nonsense. No,the Santa hog wash is not fun, cute or even a good use of a child’s wonderful imagination. As I have said this is my opinion. No one has to agree with it or like it, but I am entitled to voice it.

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