Can anyone provide a logical argument, based on fact and hard
evidence, that Father Christmas really exists? There's a $15 bonus for
Father Christmas him/her self if they are reading and can prove they
themselves exist.

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Request for Question Clarification by techtor-ga on 01 Oct 2004 07:40 PDT

If you are looking for a factual "Father Christmas", are you excluding
St. Nicholas with whom the origin of Santa Claus has been associated,
or is he what you are thinking about?

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Clarification of Question by dtnl42-ga on 01 Oct 2004 08:23 PDT

Great question - I am thinking of the actualy Father Christmas as
children see him - big fat, white beard and delivers Christmas
presents etc.

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Clarification of Question by dtnl42-ga on 01 Oct 2004 08:24 PDT

By the way, I would imagine the answer would need a lot of imagination!

The term Father Christmas is an honorific title awarded by the
?Gesellschaft von Vater-Weihnachten?, based in Switzerland since 1856.
The origins of the society are lost in history, but there is a popular
theory among members that there probably was a link with St Nicholas.
Certainly before the move to Switzerland, the membership was heavily
based in the area around Turkey.

New members are invited to join based on nominations from within the
society.  People who have been involved in charitable activities for
children for a number of years are often selected, and in more recent
times, it has been popular to encourage a certain physical resemblance
to the ?Coca-Cola?-type Santa Claus, particularly in members from
Western societies.  Cultural traditions from other Christian nations
are still honoured however, and there are many different varieties of
Father Christmas around the world.  Before 1977 the membership was
exclusively male, but following a legal challenge in the Swiss courts,
there are now ?Mother Christmas? members, although they only make up
just under 5% of the total.

Many of the myths have their basis in the facts about real members.
The image that is popular today owes something to Johannes Schmidt, a
German national living in Finland at the turn of the century, who did
indeed use a reindeer-drawn sleigh to deliver gifts to local
orphanages and other places of need.

More information at www.GCVW.co.ch/history

Certainly he exists. I will be donning a Santa suit this year to play
Santa to a number of "believing" children. To THEM I am undeniably
Santa, and in that belief Santa undeniably exists.

tutuzdad-ga

Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus 

Editorial printed in the New York Sun in 1897. 

We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication
below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its
faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:



Dear Editor--- 

     I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa
Claus. Papa says, "If you see it in The Sun, it's so." Please tell me
the truth, is there a Santa Claus?

    Virginia O'Hanlon 

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by
the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they
see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by
their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or
children's, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere
insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world
about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the
whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love
and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and
give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would
be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if
there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no
poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no
enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which
childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies.
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. Did you
ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no
proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the
wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside,
but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest
man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever
lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push
aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory
beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is
nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives and lives forever. A thousand
years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will
continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

I know this is an expired question but I had to comment.

Have you ever seen the classic movie Miracle on 34th Street?

The very question you ask is asked and answered definitively here.

What a wondrful question.  Of course, there's a FATHER CHRISTMAS.  He
exists because people,
children and adults, want him to exist.  While his guise has varied
over the years in different countries
and cultural traditions, endorsement of his reality can be seen in the
eyes of those who are touched by his warmth of personality, kindness
and generosity------traits we can all use in greater abundance.
nta ClausLike tutuzdad-ga, I too have donned the personality of SANTA
CLAUS in America and FATHER CHRISTMAS in England.  (His robe is full
length in Britain, but otherwise pretty much styled as the same
character.)  In Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland my
Santa spoke with hundreds of
youngsters with parents, as well as adults without children.  From my
vantage point, as Santa, I saw in
the eyes of many, as well as the comments made, that FATHER CHRISTMAS
was truly alive and well
in the hearts and minds of most that I would meet.  Even the nun from
a nearby college, who thought there was a stiking resembleance in
Santa's voice to the personage of William Penn, who had addressed
their honor's convocation the previous year, believed in the
sentiments and reality of Christmas spirit
that Santa sought to evoke.  And when appearing as FATHER CHRISTMAS in
England, at a town not far from London, there were no children. All
adults. Many were parishoners, serving a Christmas dinner for less
fortunate folks who had no family members, were poor or were elderly
pensioners.  What joy I saw that day, despite the fact their SANTA
seemed to display a Yankee accent, as he wished one and all a HAPPY
CHRISTMAS.  His presence made some, happy and others wistful and
refective.  Why his very
existance, before them, that day, brought them a personal glimpse of
remembering the long-gone days of their own childhood.