Is There A Santa Claus? ~ Free eBook

Is there a Santa Claus? Santa Claus can be a touchy subject for some. But this free eBook from the early 1900s explains Santa Claus as “the spirit of Christmas.”

Jacob A. Riis was a Christian police reporter interested in social reform. As a Dutch immigrant, he used his photography and writing skills to bring attention to the abysmal living conditions of many of the immigrant communities. His book How the Other Half Lives published in 1890 documented the squalid conditions in New York at that time.

His writing caught the attention of President Theodore Roosevelt when Roosevelt was on the Board of Commissioners for the New York Police Department. They worked together to bring attention to the plight of the poor. That friendship remained throughout Roosevelt’s presidency and until Riis’s death in 1914.

In Is There A Santa Claus? Riis responds to a question by a young man (in the vein of “Yes, Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus”) :

NO Santa Claus! If you had asked that car full of people I would have liked to hear the answers they would have given you. No Santa Claus! Why, there was scarce a man in the lot who didn’t carry a bundle that looked as if it had just tumbled out of his sleigh. I felt of one slyly, and it was a boy’s sled—a “flexible flyer,” I know, because he left one at our house the Christmas before; and I distinctly heard the rattling of a pair of skates in that box in the next seat. They were all good-natured, every one, though the train was behind time—that is a sure sign of Christmas.

And as the short story continues, the author points out the spirit of Christmas in all of the places he visits — as though he is “The Ghost of Christmas Present” wielding his cornucopia of good with Scrooge at his side.

NO Santa Claus? Yes, my little man, there is a Santa Claus, thank God! Your father had just forgotten. The world would indeed be poor without one. It is true that he does not always wear a white beard and drive a reindeer team—not always, you know—but what does it matter? He is Santa Claus with the big, loving, Christmas heart, for all that; Santa Claus with the kind thoughts for every one that make children and grown-up people beam with happiness all day long.

In the end, Riis points out that Santa Claus is the spirit of Christmas from ever so many years ago when a little Babe was born in Bethlehem.

The steps of the real Santa Claus you can trace all through the world as you have done here with me, and when you stand in the last of his tracks you will find the Blessed Babe of Bethlehem smiling a welcome to you. For then you will be home.

Every family has to decide how to handle Santa Claus. But if you are willing to see the good in the tradition of St. Nicholas, enjoy a family read aloud about the real Spirit of Christmas.

Free eBook

Suggestions

Who is Hans Christian Andersen and why should he “surely know”?
Learn more about the city to which Washington gave his name.
Why do we associate holly with Christmas?
Learn more about President Theodore Roosevelt.
Learn more about Jacob Riis.
Create an author page for Riis.
Where is Denmark?
What does the President of the United States do?
Who are the burgomaster, bishop, and beadle?
Chart a course from Washington, D. C. to Denmark. What are the two oceans referred to?
What is Riis saying when he compares the alms for the woman with “Treasury corner”?
Read an apt description of Santa Claus as one will find.
Read the Christmas story.

Additional Resources

Dickens A Christmas Carol: A Unit Study
Enjoy this Christmas favorite exploring the spirit of Christmas!

DIY Homeschooler