A MESSAGE FROM SANTA CLAUS

Remarks at AWS party for student body at
which President Wells played Santa Claus

The Committee has asked me to give you a Christmas message. The Daily Student has had a good deal of fun over the identity of Saint Nick. As most of you know, the headline this morning said that “St. Nick is Campus-Bound Today—‘Mystery’ Claus to Visit Union Christmas Party.” The Gables took the headline and posted it without the “Saint” and the “Today,” so that it now reads as a Gables bulletin “Nick is Campus-Bound.” Confusion and mystery about Santa Claus is a part of the fun at Christmastime for youngsters big and little.

There may be mystery about Santa Claus, but there is no mystery about the meaning of Christmas; and it is not by chance that the central figure we use to symbolize this meaning is a baby. A little more than a century ago the world was preoccupied with Napoleon’s march, awaiting with feverish impatience for the news of new military developments. And yet the real significant events were those about which there was no general interest—those events that occurred in homes—humble and great—as babies were being born. In a single year between Trafalgar and Waterloo, Gladstone, Alfred Tennyson, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Charles Darwin, Felix Mendelssohn, and Abraham Lincoln were born, and thus was cast the shape of much of the future. We are happy at Christmastime because the Christmas Story is our reminder that the world and its men are constantly being born anew, that each new generation has its chance to reach a little closer to infinite beauty, truth, and goodness.

Vachel Lindsay says it this way:

Except the Christ be born again tonight

In dreams of all men, saints, and sons of shame,

The world will never see his kingdom bright.

Stars of all hearts, lead onward through the night

Past death-black deserts: doubts without a name,

Past hills of pain and mountains of new sin

To that far sky where mystic births begin,

Where dreaming ears the angel song shall win.

In all great religions in one form or another the hope of our Christmas story is expressed, and men are reminded each year of the priceless opportunity which is ever theirs to work and strive for perfection. This common goal and this common opportunity band all men together into one vast fraternal brotherhood. And so I can give to you tonight—to all of you whether you come from a small Indiana town or from a faraway land, and through you to your parents and your loved ones—a sincere Christmas greeting. The beloved American poet, Longfellow, spoke of this season in words well-known to most Americans—words which though they were written long, long ago are as appropriate as though they were written this week.

I heard the bells on Christmas Day

Their old, familiar carols play,

And wild and sweet the words repeat

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,

The belfries of all Christendom

Had rolled along the unbroken song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;

“There is no peace on earth,” I said;

“For hate is strong, and mocks the song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:

“God is not dead, nor doth he sleep!

The Wrong shall fail, the Right prevail,

With peace on earth, good-will to men!”

Till, ringing, singing on its way,

The world revolved from night to day,

A voice, a chime, a chant sublime

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And with that message of hope, I say to each of you, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year.