"But Christmas is not merely the glory of any god; it is especially the worship of a divine childhood."

But Christmas is not merely the glory of any god; it is especially the worship of a divine childhood. Its main lesson is the lesson of simplicity, a lesson very difficult for all of us. We have all studied things too much, and we are none of us simple enough to see them. Alike in our social sympathy and in our social indignation, we need a kind of new birth and an intellectual innocence. For instance, on the kindlier side of Christmas we say what seems simple enough, 'The child thinks that Santa Claus gives the toys; but really the father and mother give them.' But we never ask 'and who gives the father and mother?' We are not simple enough to ask that question. We are not simple enough to be able even to see the father and mother, in the sense that we see the toys in the stocking. I do not suggest that Santa Claus can be expected to put our father in our stocking. But I say that it is a beautiful and strictly supernatural thing that he has contrived to put our father into his own stockings

-December 23, 1905, Daily News