Interim CIO: Dr. Claus Michael Sattler
Is there a Santa Claus?
Even as a child, I was fascinated by the article about Virginia O’Hanlon and Santa Claus in the Sunday edition of “WELT am SONNTAG”. My father had to read it to me every Christmas. For me, it was a tradition, like “The Little Lord” on the last Friday before Christmas Eve at 8:15 pm on ARD.
This year is a special Christmas for me. It’s the first time I’m not spending Christmas with my children, who have been grown up for years.
Here is my special Christmas greeting to you, your families and friends, my family and to the people who have retained this special imagination.
"Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus"
114 years ago, eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon wanted to know from the editor-in-chief of the “New York Sun” what Santa Claus was all about:
I am eight years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Dad says what’s in the Sun is always true. Please tell me: is there a Santa Claus? Virginia O’Hanlon.
The matter was so important to the editor-in-chief of The Sun that he commissioned an experienced columnist, Francis P. Church, to draft a response – in the newspaper. The response moved millions of people around the world and was published year after year.
Here is Francis P. Church’s answer to Virginia’s question:
Virginia, your little friends are not right. They are sick with the skepticism of a skeptical age. They only believe what they see: They believe that there cannot be what they cannot grasp with their small minds. All human minds are small, Virginia, whether they belong to an adult or a child. It gets lost in the universe like a tiny insect. Such an ant’s mind is not enough to grasp and comprehend the whole truth.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as surely as love and generosity and loyalty. And you know that all this exists and that’s why our lives can be beautiful and cheerful. How dark the world would be if there was no Santa Claus! It would be as dark as if there were no Virginia. There would be no faith, no poetry – nothing at all to make life bearable. A flickering remnant of visible beauty would remain. But the eternal light of childhood that fills the world would have to be extinguished.
There is a Santa Claus, otherwise you wouldn’t believe the fairy tales either. Sure, you could ask your dad to send people out to catch Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. And none of them would get to see Santa – what would that prove?
Nobody sees him just like that. That doesn’t prove anything. The most important things usually remain invisible to children and adults. The elves, for example, when they dance on moonlit meadows. Nevertheless, they exist. Not even the smartest person in the world can think of all the wonders – let alone see them.
Whatever you see, you never see everything. You can break open a kaleidoscope and look for the beautiful colored figures. You’ll find a few colorful shards, nothing more. Why? Because there is a veil that covers the real world, a veil that not even the greatest violence in the world can tear apart. Only faith and poetry and love can lift it. Then the beauty and glory behind it will suddenly be revealed. “Is that true?” you may ask. Virginia, nothing in the whole world is truer, and nothing is more enduring.
Santa Claus is alive and will live forever. Even in ten times ten thousand years, he will be there to fill children like you and every open heart with joy.
Merry Christmas, Virginia!
Your Francis Church
With this in mind, I would like to wish you and your families a blessed, peaceful and reflective Christmas.
Dr. Claus Michael Sattler
Dr. Claus Michael Sattler
