A letter to Santa

Gay Byrne

Gay Byrne, veteran and much loved Irish TV and radio presenter, hosted a show on Lyric fm this afternoon in which he read A letter to Santa by Irish novelist John Sheridan. It presents a different take, and one I liked, on Santa than the more common commercial-push-over or the religious-I-don't-want-anything-to-do-with-it approaches. I couldn't find all the text but here is a sample from the above link:

Once-- and not so long ago-- Europe, at this blessed time of year, was a blaze of lighted church-windows, carols meant more than carousals, and red, symbolic candles shone out from a million sills to guide your landings. But the lights grow fewer every year, and a great darkness is spreading over the face of Christendom.

You were always a legend, Santa, but now they are trying to make you a lie; and you were never a lie. You were, rather, a logical necessity. You just had to be invented. You stand, not just for a parable, but for a whole medley of parables.

You represent, for instance, the belief that prayers are heard-- and answered; the belief that time and space do not exist in the spiritual dimension; the belief that there is a Bounty that is not embarrassed or diminished by the number of clients or the immensity of their needs.

...

That is why I am still prepared, in spite of the cost of living, to act as your local representative and depot superintendent until my Illustrious Virtues [his children] find both of us out; why I am prepared to perpetuate a legend that looks like a lie but is merely a cloak for the truth; why I can say, literally and with all reverence, that the tiny things I have wrapped in brown paper and hidden away against the Vigil of the Feast are part of the Deposit of Faith.

But sure, who am I telling it to?