Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus rendition by Kristen Wambach

12/6/2016

A license for creativity.

"Creativity is intelligence having fun. Albert Einstein."

A simple Facebook post brings history to our front door again.
It was our 2nd Christmas at the Lester house. With 6000sq. Ft. at our disposal, Christmas decorations idea's were popping up everywhere. We had been able to lease this huge home with a 1200sq. ft. Great room for church. Perfect home church quarters.

Justin my youngest and most sentimental were at odds with the sparseness of choice in this year's Christmas tree. Tho' this 17ft. Noble fir graced the ceiling it's stretch left to much trunk space for Justin's liking's. He was moping around and saying, Mom, this just won't work. It's ugly. Our church family happily climbed ladders, hanging lights, draped metallic ribbons and hung snowflakes precisely with fishing line. This 17ft. footer, went through a transformation, from a Charlie Brown tree into a glorious platform for a giving season. Justin was reluctantly changing his mind.
Just when I thought the battle had turned my musician son, Jacob strolled into the great room, arms filled with his prized decor treasures and stuffed a white 1955 Oregon License plate in the best focal place between the branches. A Memory was born. We all rolled with laughter at the perfection that something so out of place could nestle into a great conversation piece. The joy finished the transformation.

the first offering...can you see it?

Yesterday, I was placing that same license plate into my lush, flocked, perfectly "coiffed" Christmas tree and took a picture sharing it on facebook so my Marine son Joseph could enjoy the chuckle of the family from his station in North Carolina. In the comments, I said:
"Some of the most precious Christmas memories get birthed from the creative hand of your children. "Yes Virginia, the Wambach's have a 1955 license plate in their Christmas tree.
Right Jacob? "
My husband Don said: Who's Virgina? Another comment even mentioned that it was a Virginia license plate. A perfect set up for this Christmas blog post.

This is the story of Virginia

A copy of the letter, hand-written by Virginia and believed to be the original by her family was authenticated in 1998 by Kathleen Guzman, an appraiser on the television program Antiques Roadshow.

In 1897, Dr. Philip O'Hanlon, a coroner's assistant on Manhattan's Upper West Side, was asked by his then eight-year-old daughter, Virginia O'Hanlon (1889–1971), whether Santa Claus really existed. O'Hanlon suggested she write to The Sun, a prominent New York City newspaper at the time, assuring her that
"If you see it in The Sun, it's so."[3] In so doing, Dr. O'Hanlon had unwittingly given one of the paper's editors, Francis Pharcellus Church, an opportunity to rise above the simple question and address the philosophical issues behind it.

"If you see it in The Sun, it's so." said her Father Dr. Philip O'Hanlon

The Original article in The Sun Times

We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:
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

Sun Times:
Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except 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 external 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 you 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 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, 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 lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
credit: Francis Pharcellus Church
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"Is There a Santa Claus?" reprinted from the September 21, 1897, number of The New York Sun.

Complete history found at Wikipedia

Back to my blog: Does reason steal your Christmas Spirit? I can't help but raise the question into a spiritual light that Mr. Church so eloquently writes, has skepticism crept in and you now live in an age of reason?
Can we take a fresh look at the most reprinted article in newspaper history and get a new perspective? From the hand of an eight-year-old, we gracious ask ourselves that 120-year-old question,
Can you believe without seeing?
Love, generosity, and devotion seem to be the lens in which the unseen dwell. The writer's hand says: "and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy."
With addition: Can any of us conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

Yes, you can. That is our quest, my quest, born on Christmas Day, living seated at the right hand of Father God. Jesus Christ unseen unless I look from the eyes of my heart.
May the eyes of your heart be illuminated to the wonders we celebrate in Him. His kingdom. Beyond the veil.
I was caught celebrating the memory of a goofy lisence plate. Memories connect us into a time and place that has past. The feelings are unseen, yet they can connect to that treasured "time."
Nobody knew about Virginia until I mentioned her note. Did you know it was true?
Once again, Virginias story re-told. If one were to ponder the heavenly hidden things would Virginia be part of us viewing her note, having this discussion? Is that frightening? Freaky? Or Freeing?
Where will your believing in "Him" Christmas Spirit take you this year?
Yes, Virgina there is a Santa Claus.

I love my 1955 Oregon lisence plate.