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All the world is happy when Santa Claus comes.
MAUD LINDSAY, "Santa Claus, a Wonder Story for Little Children"
- You better watch out
- You better not cry
- Better not pout
- I'm telling you why
- Santa Claus is coming to town
HAVEN GILLESPIE, "Santa Claus is Coming to Town"
Christmas at my house is always at least six or seven times more pleasant than anywhere else. We start drinking early. And while everyone else is seeing only one Santa Claus, we'll be seeing six or seven.
W.C. FIELDS, The Mammoth Book of Zingers, Quips & One-Liners
- It's always good for us to pause
- And think awhile of Santa Claus--
- That jolly symbol we revere
- When we approach the changing year.
- Behind his beard so long and white,
- In which our children take delight,
- There beats a heart from color free
- Which bids all children "come to me."
MARSHALL M. MORGAN, "The Spirit of Santa Claus"
In this age of instant coffee, overnight rush deliveries, and 30-second media sound bites, it's not surprising that children have discovered that their letters to Santa Claus can be sent by email.
PATRICK FLAHERTY, Dear Santa
I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph.
SHIRLEY TEMPLE, Halliwell's Filmgoer's Companion
I hear how kids wise up to the Santa Claus routine but pretend otherwise because the goods seem connected to keeping their parents' fantasies flowing. I've seen the parents trying to pretend for the same reason -- not because otherwise the gifts stop, but to maintain the innocence a little longer -- even when both sides know the other side knows.
Alas! How dreary would be the world if there was no Santa Claus!... There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence.
FRANCIS P. CHURCH, New York Sun, Sep. 21, 1897
- Santa Claus is anyone who loves another
- and seeks to make them happy; who gives
- himself by thought or word or deed in every gift
- that he bestows; who shares his joys with those
- who are sad; whose hand is never closed against
- the needy; whose arm is ever outstretched to aid
- the week; whose sympathy is quick and genuine
- in time of trouble; who recognizes a comrade
- and brother in every man he meets upon life's
- common road; who lives his life throughout
- the entire year in the Christmas spirit.
EDWIN OSGOOD GROVER, Vicki Howard's The Book of Santa Claus
The myth of Santa has grown to gigantic proportions. He is able to know all, to judge each and every child, to make reindeer fly and do all these things at the North Pole! Obviously Santa has slowly taken the place of God, doing things which only God can do. Unfortunately, this "god" is a legalistic "god," dispensing gifts only upon those who deserve them.
JOHN L. HOH, JR., Santa Claus: Is He For Your Child?
Santa Claus is a god. He's no less a god than Ahura Mazda, or Odin, or Zeus. Think of the white beard, the chariot pulled through the air by a breed of animal which doesn't ordinarily fly, the prayers (requests for gifts) which are annually mailed to him and which so baffle the Post Office, the specially-garbed priests in all the department stories. And don't gods reflect their creators' society? The Greeks had a huntress goddess, and gods of agriculture and war and love. What else would we have but a god of giving, of merchandising, and of consumption?
DONALD E. WESTLAKE, "Nackles," A Yuletide Universe
- He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
- and his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot.
- A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
- and he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.
- His eyes--how they twinkled! His dimples, how merry!
- His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
- His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
- and the beard on his chin was as white as the snow.
- The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
- and the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.
- He had a broad face and a little round belly,
- that shook when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly.
CLEMENT CLARKE MOORE, Twas the Night Before Christmas
When I found out that Santa Claus wasn't real, I wasn't upset; rather, I was relieved that there was a much simpler phenomenon to explain how so many children all over the world got presents on the same night! The story had been getting pretty complicated -- it was getting out of hand.
RICHARD P. FEYNMAN, What Do You Care What Other People Think?
I never believed in Santa Claus because I knew no white dude would come into my neighborhood after dark.
DICK GREGORY, Judy Brown's The Funny Pages
I think Santa Claus is, by and large, quite beneficial, for when the child is finally allowed -- or forced -- to recognize the nonexistence of Santa Claus, then the child is able to go through the vital intellectual process of reconstructing reality in light of new evidence, complete with back-forming new stories to account for past events. This prepares the child for many other disillusionments and gives her vital and well-supported experience in maintaining her grip on reality independent of the stories told to her at any given time.
ORSON SCOTT CARD, Lost Boys
Whenever you give someone a present or sing a holiday song, you're helping Santa Claus. To me, that's what Christmas is all about. Helping Santa Claus!
LOUIS SACHAR, Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger
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