Ho! Ho! Ho!

Saturday is the Feast of St. Nicholas. St. Nicholas was born in the third century and eventually became the Bishop of Myra. He gave his whole inheritance to the poor and the sick. Throughout the centuries, people began to wonder whether St. Nicholas, also known as Santa was a real person. In 1897, a little girl named Virginia O Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of the newspaper, the New York Sun, asking if Santa truly exists:

"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 is so. Please tell me the truth. Is there a Santa Claus? Virginia O'Hanlon"

The editor of the Sun, Francis P. Church, wrote back and told Virginia that her little friends were wrong. They had been affected by the skepticism of the age... We must simply have the courage and the faith to believe in things that we cannot see..."

Yes, Virginia. St.Nicholas really exists just as love and generosity exist. His faith, his laughter, his kindheartedness lives and will live forever.