Santa Claus

Pro 1: Santa Claus exists as certainly as love and generosity exist.

"Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus,” wrote American reporter and publisher Francis Church in his response to a letter to the editor from eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon. Published in The New York Sun on Sep. 21, 1897, it is one of the most famous editorials ever written.

“He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist,” explained Church, “and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy.…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.”[6]

Pro 2: Science and historical data support the existence of Santa Claus.

“Mountains of historical data and more than 50 years of NORAD tracking information leads us to believe that Santa Claus is alive and well in the hearts of people throughout the world,” reports the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). “Based on flight profile data gathered from over 50 years of NORAD’s radar and satellite tracking…Santa probably stands about 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighs approximately 260 pounds (before cookies). Based on fighter-aircraft photos, we know he has a generous girth (belly), rosy cheeks from sleigh riding in cold weather, and a flowing white beard.

“NORAD can confirm that Santa’s sleigh is a versatile, all weather, multipurpose, vertical short-take-off and landing vehicle. It is capable of traveling vast distances without refueling and is deployed, as far as we know, only on December 24th (and sometimes briefly for a test flight about a month before Christmas).”[7]

“Science has long shown that Santa Claus is real,” adds neuroscientist Dean Burnett, “and those who claim otherwise are invariably in the pocket of the big toy companies, who don’t want people thinking they can get free playthings and so will pay for their products. The evidence is beyond any reasonable doubt, and the arguments of the Santa deniers have been repeatedly debunked.…

“Admittedly, the whole ‘flying reindeer’ thing does seem very far-fetched, and this is a fair accusation. Investigations suggest that the flying reindeer image is a distortion of the truth, in that reindeer are native to the Arctic so Santa may well keep reindeer on his premises and perhaps they did pull his sleigh originally. But there is substantial evidence now to suggest that Santa powers his sled with the energy obtained from a precisely controlled quantum singularity. Basically, Santa has access to a small black hole, which he uses to perform his duties.” [8]

Pro 3: Santa Claus is the manifestation of the historic St. Nicholas.

St. Nicholas—Christian bishop of Myra, Turkey, in the 4th century and patron saint of children and sailors—was celebrated in the Eastern and Western churches, noted for his generosity and gift-giving. As Encyclopaedia Britannica reports, St. Nicholas was imprisoned and likely tortured for his faith during the persecution of Christians by the Roman emperor Diocletian but was released under the rule of Constantine the Great. “He was reputed to have given marriage dowries of gold to three girls whom poverty would otherwise have forced into lives of prostitution and to have restored to life three children who had been chopped up by a butcher and put in a tub of brine.” In many countries, children receive gifts on his feast day, Dec. 6. [13]

“After the Reformation,” explains Britannica, “devotion to Nicholas disappeared in all the Protestant countries of Europe except Holland, where his legend persisted as Sinterklaas (a Dutch variant of the name St. Nicholas). Dutch colonists took this tradition with them to New Amsterdam (now New York City) in the American colonies in the 17th century. Sinterklaas was adopted by the country’s English-speaking majority under the name Santa Claus….The resulting image of Santa Claus in the United States crystallized in the 19th century, and he has ever since remained the patron of the gift-giving festival of Christmas.”[13]