Yes, There Is a Santa Claus

“Man, I wish my family was like this on Christmas Eve.” the 19-year old Ethan leaned over to whisper to the 17-year old Kayla as they sat at the dining room table with her stepfather’s family on Christmas Eve. Kayla simply smiled back at him and shook her head. She and Ethan had only known each other for about 2 months, but they were already best friends. When Ethan first met her stepfather’s side of the family, the loud Polish and Italian side, she had been terrified that they would drive him screaming into the night, or something to that effect on her list of ‘Things that will make him never talk to me again’. But Ethan had taken everything in stride, from her cousins that just had to be the center of attention, to the way they teased him about never eating a pierogie, the Polish dish that they were currently eating. He never treated her any different because of her family, which she was thankful for.

“Just wait until they start talking over the music. Then the music will get turned up, then they’ll start talking louder...and it goes on until you can’t hear yourself think.” Kayla whispered in his ear as she stood up with her empty plate, and picked his up as she passed behind him to go to the kitchen.

“You’re so getting coal for Christmas.” he smiled into his glass of milk before taking a drink.

“Oh of course. I’ve been so naughty.” Kayla’s voice had a sudden smoothness to it that made Ethan snort and almost choke.

“What’s wrong?” she smirked at him, noticing how his face was the color of the red bow that she was wearing in her hair.

“You know that can be taken in a completely different way, right?” Ethan managed to say. He was still trying to catch his breath.

“Only if you take it that way.” she grinned. He opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off by the sound of yelling.

“Mommy! The Virginia movie is on!” Kayla’s 8-year old cousin William pounded up the stairs from the family room.

“Alright, everyone upstairs!” Kayla’s aunt Jenny called down the stairs. Her call was answered by Will’s 11-year old sister Alexis, Kayla’s 21-year old sister Jill, their 21-year old cousin Chris, and his fiancé, Rachel. Kayla pulled Ethan to the small couch in the living room and dropped down beside him as the movie began.

“You really called me up here for this? I was so close to beating the next level with Lexi!” Chris rolled his eyes.

“With the amount of times you’ve rolled your eyes tonight, I’m surprised they aren’t stuck like that. Just enjoy the movie, Scrooge.” Kayla replied.

“They might as well just take ‘Virginia’ out and call it, ‘Yes, Kayla, There Is A Santa Claus’.” Chris sneered.

“Nah, I already know Santa is real.” Kayla shrugged.

“Please.” Chris snorted. Kayla raised her eyebrows in response.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” her question holding a light tension.

“You’re just doing this for the kids, right? You don’t really believe that Santa exists, do you?” he asked incredulously.

“And if I do? Is that a problem?” Kayla’s eyes flashed dangerously, not going unnoticed by Ethan.

“Yes, Kayla! There is! Are you kidding me? You’re seventeen!” Chris replied.

“So what? Is there a problem with me still believing in Santa?” Kayla shot back venomously. Her younger cousins were no longer paying attention to the movie, watching the conversation like one would watch a tennis match: looking back and forth at the two, while Rachel was in the kitchen and Jill was in the dining room.

“Yes! You’re too old to believe in that shit!” Chris exclaimed.

“Who are you to decide what I can and can’t believe in?” Kayla burst out, standing up straight and finally drawing the attention of everyone in the dining room.

“What’s going on in there?” Kayla’s aunt called.

“Is it really that wrong to want to believe in something magical?” Kayla continued before stomping over to the door, pulling it open. She pulled on her boots and stormed out into the night, slamming the door behind her with so much force that the windows rattled slightly and the ornaments on the tree shook from the sudden wind.

“Kayla!” Ethan ran over to the door and put on his hoodie as he stuffed his feet into his shoes. He stepped out into the frigid air and closed the door behind him, straining to hear Kayla respond in the, literally, silent night. Snow was falling in fat flakes, the lamp in Kayla’s front yard throwing shadows across the snow that already blanketed the ground, and the snow by the house was lit up in spots of blue, green, yellow, red, and pink, from the lights wrapped around the bushes.

“Kayla?” he called again through the night. She had run out without a jacket, just a black, half sleeve cardigan, which wouldn’t do much against the cold because the back was just black lace. Would she come back if he went back inside? Or would she stay out and freeze?

Ethan finally noticed the small footprints leading down the sidewalk, away from the door and toward the garage. They were fresh, but already beginning to fill with the falling snow. He followed them until he got to the garage and saw a figure huddled against where the side of the house and the front of the garage met at a corner.

“Kayla!” he breathed a sigh of relief and stood in front of her, to block the wind that kicked up every few moments. She didn’t look up at him, just kept her arms folded in front of her and stared at the ground.

“Hey,” he lifted her chin with one finger and made her look at him, and the look in her eyes nearly broke his heart. They were glassy in the white icicle lights overhead, shining with unshed tears.

“Talk to me, please? What’s wrong?” he asked, taking his finger away from her chin. She looked over across the street, at the white lights that hung from the house.

“It’s not fair.” she whispered. “Why can’t I believe? Why is it just for kids? Does it really matter if I’m seven or seventeen? I didn’t know that there was an age limit on what you can and can’t believe in. Is it that wrong to want to believe that Christmas is more than just slapping pretty paper and a bow on things that you spend hours looking for? What’s so wrong about wanting to believe that...that maybe there is some magic out there? Every day we hear about how money is a problem, people are losing their homes, their jobs, the holidays are going to be hard, everyone has to sacrifice...for one night, why can’t I believe that there’s something good...something magical...in the world?” she asked, her voice finally breaking, and his heart went out to his best friend as he pulled her into his arms.

“Never stop believing, Kayla. You hear me? There is nothing wrong with believing in miracles, or Santa, or anything you want to believe in. The people that don’t believe...it’s their loss. Don’t let anyone tell you what you should and shouldn’t belive in. More people should be like you. More people should believe. Because the world would be a happier place.” he said to her, feeling her nod against his chest as she took a deep shuddering breath, and a shiver ripped through her body as she pulled away.

She hadn’t started crying, but she wiped under her eyes anyway, then looked up at Ethan when he chuckled quietly.

“What?” she asked curiously, then followed his gaze to where he was looking up...at the mistletoe hanging above them, and gasped.

“That wasn’t there earlier.” she looked at him with wide eyes, then closed them when he kissed her forehead, as warmth flooded her body, pushing out the stabbing cold.

“Merry Christmas, Kayla.” he pulled away with a soft smile. She slowly smiled back and stood on tiptoe to kiss his cheek.

“Merry Christmas, Ethan.” she whispered back.

Hand in hand to keep from slipping on the ice, the pair made their way back along the sidewalk to the front door.

“Just remember, he’s probably getting coal anyway.” Ethan reminded her as she reached to open the front door.

“You’re horrible.” she shook her head and pushed the door open. They were met with the sight of the kids watching the movie again, having missed it the first time during the argument. Chris was nowhere to be found, and everyone else still sat in the dining room. The living room was only lit by the light of the TV and the lights from the tree, the harsh glow of the TV mixing with the soft glow of the tiny lights on the tree.

Kayla quietly shut the door behind her as Ethan kicked off his shoes and slipped into the darkened kitchen.

“Mommy?” Will called.

“Yeah?” she called back. The movie was about to play the editor’s letter to Virginia.

“Santa’s real, right?” Will asked. There was a silence from the dining room.

“Of course he is, Will. Why?” Kayla’s aunt replied.

“Why did Chris say that Kayla can’t believe that he’s real? Does that mean there isn’t a Santa?” Will asked.

“Will, I’m trying to watch!” Lexi shushed her brother.

“There is a Santa...right?” he asked, his voice trembling. “Or is Chris telling the truth?” he pressed. The room was filled with a tense silence.

“Look, Will,” Chris started to speak from the dining room, and her temper flared. Though her younger cousins thoroughly annoyed her, she wasn’t about to let Chris destroy someone else’s beliefs.

“Your little friends are wrong.” she started to speak with the voice over in the movie as she leaned against the wall next to the window, in plain view of everyone in the dining room once they turned at the sound of her voice. She had to memorize the entire letter last year for her English assignment, which had to do with beliefs and holidays.

“They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except what they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.” she wasn’t speaking with the voice over anymore, as it was skipping around to different parts of the letter. Her voice was steady, yet the emotion in it was loud and clear, with emphasis on certain words.

She looked at Will and Lexi as she spoke the next verse.

“Yes, there is a Santa Claus.” she smiled, then looked over at Ethan, who was leaning against the doorway between the dining room and the living room. “He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas, how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias! There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.” she looked over at the tree.

Her gaze went right to Chris as she continued speaking.

“Not believe in Santa Claus? You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove?” she shrugged, then looked back at the kids. “Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not! But that's no proof that they are not there! Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.”

“You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.” she smiled softly, then looked back down at the kids, who were staring at her like she was reading the best story they’d ever heard.

“No, Santa Claus, thank God he lives, and he lives forever! A thousand years from now, Virginia....No! Ten times ten thousand years from now...he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.” she looked back to Ethan, who was smiling at her, then looked at the kids one more time.

“Yes. There is a Santa Claus.” she finished, then pushed herself off the wall and picked up her coat, slipping out the front door once again.

-
“Did I ever tell you how amazing you were?” she heard Ethan’s voice behind her as she stood in the driveway, staring at the lights that twinkled from the houses around them. The snow had stopped falling, and the sky was clear. The stars burned brightly, like thousands of diamonds, in the black sky and the moon threw its light down on the snow.

“A few times, actually.” she smiled to herself.

“What are you doing out here?” he asked.

“Just thinking.” she shrugged.

“About what?” he asked, stopping beside her.

“About how you were right. Nobody can tell me what I can and can’t believe in. If Chris doesn’t believe...that’s his problem, not mine.” she shrugged with a smile.

“Atta girl.” he grinned.

She was about to speak when she was cut off by the faint sound of jingling bells. They looked at each other, then looked up and down the street at the houses around them. There were no people outside, no cars coming down the road...everything was silent except for the bells.

“Santa?” Ethan whispered with a smile. Kayla looked up at the sky just in time to see a shooting star, and as it disappeared from sight, the jingling faded away into silence.

“Merry Christmas, Ethan.” she smiled up at him.

“Merry Christmas, Kayla.” he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her into a hug, resting his chin on top of her head, smiling to himself.

‘Best. Christmas. Ever.’