The True Story of Santa Claus

The True Story of Santa

When I was old enough to notice that Santa and my mother had exactly the same handwriting, my parents gave me a book called, Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus.

The book was a reprint of an actual letter a girl about my age had written to the editor of The New York Sun in 1897, asking if there really was a Santa Claus. The girl reasoned that if the newspaper had printed it, it had to be true.

Shows how much Virginia knew. That same newspaper had printed a long article 60 years earlier about the winged creatures that lived on the Moon.

At any rate, the editor wrote back and said there was indeed a Santa Claus, and that he would continue to make kids happy for 100,000 years.

Leave it to the media to mislead small children. The true story of Santa Claus is something else entirely, as pieced together from his appearances in legend, newspapers, magazines, and advertisements.

Part of the tale is good and scary, which is actually a plus. Through experience with my nieces and nephews, I've learned that there's nothing like a frightening story to really get a kid's attention (and promote good behavior).

Note: This is not wise to do to your own children, unless you want to spend half the night comforting a shivering, bawling 7-year-old.

If any other people's offspring ask you whether Santa Claus exists, however, this is what you can tell them:

"Of course he does!"

"He flies through the sky on a horse with a sidekick elf named Black Peter, who will whip you senseless if you're bad. I swear, I read it in Encarta."

Once you've hooked them with Black Peter, tell them that, "in fact, Santa flies so fast you won't even see Black Peter coming until you have a sore bottom

by Martha Brockenbrough