Did you discover there is no Santa Claus? How old were you when you found out there was no Santa Claus? When in her eighties, my Aunt Duskie said Christmas had never been the same since she learned there was no Santa Claus.

Just how sure are you there is no Santa Claus?

I believe the year I was seven I still truly believed in a real, tangible Santa Claus. By the next year, I suspected that perhaps Santa was a myth. I learned for definite sure when I was nine.

That year, I begged my mother to tell me what she got me for Christmas. She tried her best to avoid my request, but I was unremittingly persistent, and I finally wore her down. A couple of days before Christmas, she gave me what I had asked for, a dictionary.

Then when Christmas morning came, there was nothing for her to put under the tree from “Santa.” That was the moment I knew for certain that Santa was a myth. (Of course, it never occurred to me that I’d been so bad that year that Santa just simply marked me off his list. This was one occasion that low self-esteem was not a factor in my personality.)

You can research and discover exactly how the “myth” of Santa Claus came into being, and how different children around the world perceive the persona different than children in the United States.

My first year of teaching I was assigned third grade. I got many questions from some of my students who were at the pivotal age of questioning the reality of Ol’ Saint Nick. They would point blank ask me, “Do you believe in Santa Claus?”

Remembering my own struggle with fantasy versus reality with respect to the Jolly Ol’ Elf, I gave them the most truthful answer I could. “Yes, I believe in the spirit of Santa Claus.” I left them, young though they were, to process that answer in the confines of their emergence from childhood into that awkward pre-adolescent stage of development.

Now, Dear Reader, ask me now, “Do you believe in Santa Claus?” My answer today, almost four decades after the one I gave to my first class of third graders, remains unchanged. “Yes, I believe in the spirit of Santa Claus.”

For what is Santa best known? Most people would probably say, “giving gifts.”

As I write this article on Thanksgiving Eve, I look around my office. My eyes fall on several items that were given to me as Christmas gifts. Two of my favorites are silhouettes of Abraham and Mary Lincoln that three of my co-workers gave me two Christmas seasons ago. A sign hangs over my computer desk that another colleague gave me a few seasons ago which says “I work hard so my cat can have a better Christmas.”

I see other items that friends and colleagues have given me at times of the year other than Christmas, including: a Rae Dunn mustache coffee mug; various Lincoln items, such as a poster from the Lincoln Memorial that a former student brought me from his eighth grade trip to Washington, D.C.; multiple assorted Lincoln memorabilia from friends both living and deceased; a Union County Superintendent of Schools election card treasured by a departed friend; a discarded reading book from one of the district’s former reading series; and other items too numerous to name.

Of course, these are all tangible items, and treasured as they are, they cannot compare to the intangible gifts received over the years, all throughout the years: the friendly visits and phone calls; the warm handshakes; the funny stories people share; the meals bought for me for no other reason than kindness; the morning greetings; the afternoon departures; the concern for personal well-being; the comforting ear when difficulties arise; and numerous other intangible gifts given all throughout the year, too numerous to list.

Yes, Christmas is a time of giving. But the true spirit of Christmas lives and gives all throughout the year. If I could only keep the tangible evidence that demonstrates the giving love of friends or the tangible gifts, I would choose the intangible. Tangible things are fleeting—they can be destroyed, lost, or fade in memory. The intangible gifts that demonstrate the love of friends are so much more precious.

Some would call these gifts “blessings,” and rightly so. Such gifts given freely throughout the year point to much more than the spirit of Santa Claus. They point to the Spirit of Christianity that is so needed in our modern complicated world.

Friends come and go. There are many reasons. Life happens. Rather than grieve the loss of a friendship, let’s be thankful for the laughter and memories of the friendships past, and grateful for the friendships to be developed in the future.

How many times have you “been blessed” throughout the past year? How many times have you “been a blessing”?

Take care, Dear Reader, that you don’t just limit your blessings to those you know and love. Hebrews 13:2 (KJV) tells us, “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”

Do we contribute to the needs of those less fortunate? Do we donate to creditable charitable organizations? Do we visit the sick and comfort them and their families? Are we kind to those we meet, even if we know we will never see them again? Do we go out of our way to be kind to the unfriendly, the hateful, those who we know are resentful of us, those we have wronged, those who have wronged us?

Dear Reader, there may not be an actual, tangible Santa Claus, but there is a Spirit available to us that will not only bless us throughout the entire year, but Who will help us bless others as well.

May your Christmas 2024 be your best ever, not so much because of what you receive, not for what you have been given, but for what you give of yourself to others.

Answer to Question of the Week # 40:
Will glass coffins be a success? (Answer: It remains to be seen.)

Question of the Week # 41:
What did Phyllis Diller say she didn’t like about office Christmas parties? (See next week’s article in historicunioncounty.com for the answer.)

For Pondering:
God doesn’t care about the clothes in your closet. He is more interested in how many you helped to clothe.

God doesn’t care about the color of your skin. He cares about the content of your character.