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Santa Claus

legendary figure said to deliver gifts to people on Christmas Eve

Santa Claus, also known as Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas, or Kris Kringle, is a figure with legendary and historical aspects who is known for bringing gifts to the homes of the good children (and children-at-heart) during the late evening and overnight hours of Christmas Eve, December 24.

Santa Claus is coming to town!

Quotes

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  • Santa Claus is anyone who loves another and seeks to make them happy; who gives himself by thought or word or deed in every gift that he bestows; who shares his joys with those who are sad; whose hand is never closed against the needy; whose arm is ever outstretched to aid the week; whose sympathy is quick and genuine in time of trouble; who recognizes a comrade and brother in every man he meets upon life's common road; who lives his life throughout the entire year in the Christmas spirit.
  • They err who think Santa Claus enters through the chimney. He enters through the heart.
    • Charles W. Howard, quoted in Hollis Ricci-Canham & Andrew Canham. Legendary Locals of Orleans (2012), page 87 [1]
  • To say there is no Santa Claus is the most erroneous statement in the world. Santa Claus is a thought that is passed from generation to generation. After time this thought takes on a human form. Maybe if all children and adults understand the symbolism of this thought we can actually attain Peace on Earth and good will to men everywhere.
  • I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph.
    • Shirley Temple, as quoted in The New Penguin Dictionary of Modern Quotations by Robert Andrews
  • Santa Claus: I have watched over you all your lives. I've taken care of you from Christmas to Christmas.
Fiona: But you're not real.
Santa Claus: And yet, that never stopped me.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus (1897)

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Essay by Francis Pharcellus Church, originally published as "Is There a Santa Claus?" in The New York Sun (21 September 1897)
 
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus … 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.
  • 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.
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