In re: The Legality and Authenticity of Santa Claus
In the court of quarter sessions of
Allegheny County, Pennsylvania
In re Legality and Authenticity of Santa Claus
Docket N. 52 - December 1936
OPINION Judge Michael Musmanno:
During the last month several requests have been made of this Court for a judicial pronouncement on the legal status of Santa Claus. There have been some suggestions to the effect the white-bearded gentlemen, with beaming smiles and bulging sacks on their backs, are deceiving the public, in that they purport to represent a personage that does not exist. There have even been intimations that perhaps warrants of arrest should issue against these Santa Clauses, charging them with false pretense.
So that no one may be misled, we hereby declare that anyone initiating such a prosecution, on the supposition that there is no Santa Claus, will not only have the case dismissed against him but he will be require to pay the costs of the suit in addition.
Santa Claus is a reality recognizable by the law and he will be protected in this court against all aspersions and insinuations to the contrary. If the law recognizes John Doe, it will certainly respect Santa Claus. This Court can state with judicial correctness that it has seen Santa Claus, but has never had any ocular observation of John Doe.
There are many famous and celebrated characters who are as real to us as the flesh and blood people of our daily contacts, and yet they have not come within the range of our physical vision. For instance has anyone seen Jack Frost? But who can deny his existence? Jack Frost, who takes a green forest and converts it into a sublime and dazzling riot of color, each tree an inverted golden chandelier with crystals of scarlet, orange and bronze, turning their gorgeous facets to the mellow light of the autumnal sun. Jack Frost, who in the wintry morning etches fairy castles and prancing silver steeds on the window pane. This lovable sprite and incomparable artist does his work when we sleep and then gayly dances away before we can open an eye to him. An as Jack Frost decorates the leaves of the forests and the glass of our windows without our seeing him, so does Santa Claus put warmth into our heart, life into our spirit and cheer into our nature without our being aware of it.
Has anyone seen Dan Cupid? But who doubts the being of that chubby little lad who visits royal palaces as well as peasants’ homes? Who can question the accuracy of his aim, and the power of the bow behind his arrow when its reverberations can shake and have shaken the foundations of empires? Deny the reality of Cupid and you can call into question the verity of the tender passion that brings maiden and youth together and makes the possible the family - the bond that holds society together....
....Santa Claus is a reality. He stands not only in
front of the department stores but he is in every home, sitting with the
children on his knee before the crackling fireplace, chuckling with
self-satisfied felicity as he surveys the plenty of today and contemplates the
hope and the promise of even better days yet to come. Santa Claus is not a figment of the imagination. He is an actuality and does not live alone for the children. In fact, the adults derive even more soul-filling ecstasy from the amiable and corpulent gentleman than do the kiddies. Little Susie and Billy howl with delight when they espy the life-size talking doll and the bright sled under the Christmas tree. But the parents first had their fun when they purchased the gifts, experienced a third thrill when they heard the shouts of happiness of their children as they discovered the presents their hearts had craved.
If there were no Santa Claus in the courts, there would be no justice, because Santa Claus represents the spirit of mercy, goodness and sympathy; and without those qualities there would be no intelligent appraisement of the human factors involved in every trial and every sentencing.
Santa Claus is the symbol of amiable kindness; he is the token of smiling charity’ he is the badge of all that is cheerfully benevolent in the make-up of man. The best judge is he who walks with Santa Claus. Even in sentencing the worst offender one must remember that the defendant still belongs to the human race, and in the final reckoning we are all brothers. Even judges will some day be judged, and we will be much relieved if we can be assured that on that final day the spirit of Christmas will prevail in the Judgement Hall.
Thus, after considering all the evidence in the case, which is made up of the testimony of the season, the attestations of the human heart, and the exhibits presented by Mother nature; and after listening to the rosy-cheeked laughter of the December winds laden with the glittering snow, each flake a pattern of beauty and harmony, we conclude and find that Santa Claus is a reality. We find further that without him life would be dull and cheerless, and that with him the heart is merry and the spirit gay, as life should be.
Therefore, in view of the foregoing we hereby order, adjudge and decree that anyone within our jurisdiction who questions the authenticity of the genuineness of Santa Claus will be declared in contempt of court and he will be committed to the bastille, there to be kept in dungeon vile until his soul expands and the spirit of Christmas enter therein, when he shall then be released, provided he shall shout with whole lungs and full heart: “MERRY CHRISTMAS!” “MERRY CHRISTMAS!”
- Musmanno, Judge
'Bah!' said Scrooge, 'Humbug!'
 "..Once
upon a time -- of all the good days in the year, on Christmas Eve -- old Scrooge
sat busy in his counting-house...The door of Scrooge's counting-house was open
that he might keep his eye upon his clerk, who in a dismal little cell beyond, a
sort of tank was copying letters ... 'A merry Christmas, uncle! God save you!' cried a cheerful voice. It was the voice of Scrooge's nephew, who came upon him so quickly that this was the first intimation he had of his approach. 'Bah!' said Scrooge, 'Humbug!' He had so heated himself with rapid walking in the fog and frost, this nephew of Scrooge's, that he was all in a glow; his face was ruddy and handsome; his eyes sparkled, and his breath smoked again. 'Christmas a humbug, uncle!' said Scrooge's nephew. 'You don't mean that, I am sure?' 'I do,' said Scrooge. 'Merry Christmas! What right have you to be merry? What reason have you to be merry? You're poor enough.' 'Come, then,' returned the nephew gaily. 'What right have you to be dismal? What reason have you to be morose? You're rich enough.' Scrooge having no better answer ready on the spur of the moment, said, 'Bah!' again; and followed it up with 'Humbug!' 
'Don't be cross, uncle.' said the nephew. 'What else can I be,' returned the
uncle, 'when I live in such a world of fools as this? Merry Christmas! Out upon
merry Christmas. What's Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills
without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, but not an hour richer;
a time for balancing your books and having every item in them through a round
dozen of months presented dead against you? If I could work my will,' said
Scrooge indignantly,'every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his
lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly
through his heart. He should!' 'Uncle!' pleaded the nephew. 'Nephew!' returned the uncle, sternly, 'keep Christmas in your own way, and let me keep it in mine.' 'Keep it!' repeated Scrooge's nephew. 'But you don't keep it.' 'Let me leave it alone, then,' said Scrooge. 'Much good may it do you! Much good it has ever done you!' 'There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say,' returned the nephew. 'Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round - apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that - as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!' The clerk in the tank involuntarily applauded. Becoming immediately sensible of the impropriety, he poked the fire, and extinguished the last frail spark for ever. 'Let me hear another sound from you,' said Scrooge, 'and you'll keep your Christmas by losing your situation! You're quite a powerful speaker, sir,' he added, turning to his nephew. 'I wonder you don't go into Parliament.'" Read the rest at A Christmas Carol or check out this public domain movie: Scrooge in which Seymour Hicks plays the title role in the first sound version of the Dickens classic. This British import is notable for being the only adaptation of this story with an invisible Marley's Ghost and its Expressionistic cinematography. This is the uncut 78 minute version.  |
The Redemption of Scrooge
 "'Spirit!' Scrooge cried, tight clutching at
its robe, 'hear me! I am not the man I was. I will not be the man I would have
been but for this intercourse. Why show me this, if I am past all hope?'
..."'Good Spirit,' he pursued, as down upon the ground he fell before it: 'Your nature intercedes for me, and pities me. Assure me that I yet may change these shadows you have shown me, by an altered life? ... I will honor Christmas in my heart. I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. Oh, tell me I may sponge away the writing on this tombstone!' "In his agony, he caught the spectral hand. It sought to free itself, but he was strong in his entreaty, and detained it. The Spirit, stronger yet, repulsed him. "Holding up his hands in a last prayer to have his fate reversed, he saw an alteration in the Phantom's hood and dress. It shrunk, collapsed, and dwindled down into a bedpost. "Yes! and the bedpost was his own. The bed was his own, the room was his own. Best and happiest of all, the Time before him was his own, to make amends in! ... "'I don't know what to do!' cried Scrooge, laughing and crying in the same breath; and making a perfect Laocoon of himself with his stockings. 'I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy. I am as giddy as a drunken man. A merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to all the world! Hallo here! Whoop! Hallo!'" You may read the rest of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens or check out this public domain movie: Scrooge in which Seymour Hicks plays the title role in the first sound version of the Dickens classic. This British import is notable for being the only adaptation of this story with an invisible Marley's Ghost and its Expressionistic cinematography. This is the uncut 78 minute version. |
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