“Daddy, we can’t have our fireplace burning on the night Santa comes,” a little boy told his father, (as I overheard at Market Street in Midland).
While running behind as most of us do this time of year, I happened to be rushing through the produce aisle at that moment and couldn’t help but pause and smile. No, I didn’t hear what the father said, as he seemed to be in a hurry, too.
Surely, he offered an explanation on the way home. Such questions from children persist until they get an answer. Since I estimated the boy’s age to be around 5, his father has some time before questions about such matters as the “birds and bees.”
As most of you can relate, stress with Christmastime duties, parties, decorating, shopping, wrapping, hosting, or traveling can be overwhelming. That’s for even the most fortunate among us.
Many in our prosperous city cannot imagine financial burdens of some among us. Others are battling debilitating illnesses, recent loss of loved ones, depression or hopelessness. During this season of celebrating the birth of Christ, it brings joy to those hurting, lonely, sick or in need when we extend extra generosity, love and kindness. Of course, it will also bring joy to our hearts.
After encountering the little boy concerned about his fireplace and Santa, later that night I made time to bake my traditional Christmas cookies, (a therapeutic activity for me,) even when it didn’t seem there would be time this year.
Somehow, that little boy’s question to his dad brought gladness to my heart. It also reminded me of a famous editorial published in a prominent New York newspaper, on Sept. 21, 1897.
A little girl had written the newspaper, asking if Santa was real. Below are excerpts from “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus,” by Francis P. Church, editor at the New York Sun.
“… How dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! … The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished… 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… Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.”
Anyway, Santa will surely get down that little boy’s fireplace tonight, flames or not. I pray the joy of Christmas will never extinguish in his heart, and all our hearts.
Shanna (Sissom) Iverson is former longtime city editor of the Midland Reporter-Telegram, and served as managing editor of its sister Hearst Newspaper, the Plainview (Texas) Herald.