Billy Cantley, age 7, of Lake City, South Carolina, for his question:
Is Santa ever a real person?
It's getting to be that time of year when young persons start to wonder. Dozens of Santas appear in the stores and on the streets. And you know for a fact that One Special Santa will visit your home on Christmas Eve. Is this one the Real Santa? Or are there dozens of real Santas? Or perhaps they are all just kindly, grownup friends who dress up and pretend to be Santa. If this is so, perhaps there was once a real Santa who lived long ago.
Most experts think that there once was a real Santa who lived 1600 years ago. Things were very different in those days and he did not look very much like our Santa. But he had the same kindly thoughts and deeds, especially for the children. His name was Nicholas. Though he was only a teenager, he was a bishop. No, his church was not the North Pole, or anywhere near it. He lived in the town of Myra, not far from the Mediterranean Sea, where the weather was always warm and sunny.
Young Bishop Nicholas knew all the people in Myra. He shared their happy times and listened to their troubles. When someone was sad, he wanted to make things better. But he dial not want the people to know who helped them. Very often he wanted to give presents to his young friends. But he did not want them to know where the presents came from. That is the sort of person he was.
The kind young bishop often carried a sack of presents around in the dead of night, When the children and grownups were fast asleep, he tip toed into their homes and left his secret gifts. In fact, Nicholas was a person very much like our jolly round Santa. Maybe the people discovered his secret, maybe they did not. But some of the parents thought he had a very good idea. They began giving secret presents to their children, especially at Christmas time.
This idea was very popular and people of other lands copied it. In time, almost everybody forgot the young bishop who started it all. Some changed his name to Santa Claus and changed his home to the North Pole. A few still called him Saint Nicholas, or Saint Nick. In time, candles and Christmas trees and all sorts of other merry things were added. But the best idea never changed. Our jolly old Santa, whoever he is, still brings presents to the children secretly on Christmas Eve.
They say that Bishop Nicholas was a tall and stately young man. We know that he lived far away in a warm and sunny land. But these things do not matter at all. What really matters is this. The young bishop had a good idea and our jolly old Santa helped to spread it to all the children of the world. Let's give our Special Santa a big hug for his kindness. We may guess who he really is. But if he wants to keep that a secret, let's pretend we don't know with a Ho, ho, ho.