Yes, I believe in Santa Claus. He's more kind than the other guy with a red hat. | Opinion
If one chooses not to believe in a force for good, what's the point in believing anything?
I believe in Santa Claus.
I make that declaration every year before Christmas, and every year, without fail, I’m mocked (mainly by family members) or labeled “cheesy” by online scolds and various other doubters.
That hasn’t stopped me before, and it certainly won’t stop me this year. If ever Americans needed to believe in a totem of pure goodness, it’s right now.
You believe in your red-hatted guy, I'll believe in mine – he's much nicer
There’s another large-ish fellow who wears a red hat – kind of the anti-Santa, both in spirit and tone – getting loads of attention and promising us things many don’t want. But let’s dispatch with thoughts of that guy.
Instead, I’d like to ask the Santa doubters out there, young or old or in between, to consider the qualities of Claus – as a holiday spirit, as an idea and as a concept I argue is worthy of belief.
Santa Claus has earned our belief. It's the least we can do.
To start, Santa represents kindness in its purest form. In the stories and shows and the tales parents tell their children, he is a character who cares about people and builds in kids a sense of hope and whimsy. Who teaches the value of goodness and the ills of being bad.
Why would you not believe in those things? Would you want your children, or would children want the adults around them, to not embrace an ideal that revolves entirely around being a good person?
Santa wouldn't be denigrating migrants or turning them away
Santa also represents inclusion. He wouldn’t turn away people in need or demean people because of where they come from or who they are. He is for everyone who wants to believe, no questions asked.
A man who partners with elves and befriends reindeer excludes no one. And so it should be for us all. Shouldn’t it?
St. Nicholas respects people, children or otherwise. He would never tolerate bullying or be a bully himself.
Can you envision a figure like Santa Claus mocking a child over the pronouns that child uses? He’d be run out of the shopping mall or chased back up the chimney. He would not, in any sense, be Santa Claus.
How do you choose not to believe in something fundamentally good?
He is the values we want our children to embrace, the values we grownups could likely use a refresher course on.
Those raised believing there’s a certain magic to Christmas know what I’m saying is true. Behind the garland and lights and gift wrap and bows lies a central theme, and Santa Claus embodies it: Be good. Be kind. Love others.
Do I believe in that? Absolutely.
If one chooses not to believe in a force for good, what’s the point in believing anything?
I believe in Santa Claus, and nobody's going to persuade me otherwise
So, for younger folks who might be pondering the veracity of all the North Pole stuff, I can tell you this: I’ve been alive more than five decades, and I’ve believed in Santa Claus since I was old enough to understand the very idea of him.
I don’t have data or photos or anything factual to show you. What I do have is a stubborn refusal to stop believing there exists a figure or spirit or something or someone in this world who reminds us that kindness matters.
On Christmas Eve, as I’ve done every year for as long as I can remember, I’ll walk out to the backyard and look up into the sky. I’ve yet to see anything – and again, I am mocked mercilessly for this – but I’ll always look.
Because that’s what belief is, isn’t it? Remaining ever hopeful.
It seems we could all use a bit of that right now.
Merry Christmas to all who celebrate.
Follow Paste BN columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk