BELIEVE! ..."YES, VIRGINIA, THERE IS A SANTA CLAUS." ~ SANTA'S FAVORITE COOKIES / SWEDISH PEPPARKAKOR / SPRITZGEBACKEN / EGGNOG COOKIES

"Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus."

~ Francis Pharcellus Church

~ Santa

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SWEDISH PEPPARKAKOR

~ The Larson Family's treasured shared ginger cookie recipe

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1 cup butter
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 beaten egg
2 Tbsp. dark corn syrup
3 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp. cardamom
2 tsp. soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ginger
1 tsp. cloves

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Cream butter and sugar. Add egg and syrup.
• Sift flour and dry ingredients. Add to first mixture. Mix well. Let dough stand in refrigerator overnight. Roll and cut.
• Bake 8 - 12 minutes on ungreased cookie sheet. (makes 22 BIG gingerbread men)

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SPRITZGEBACKEN
(Judy O's)

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1/2 pound unsalted (room temperature) butter
2 egg yolks
2 - 2 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 Tbsp. vanilla

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Mix all ingredients together. Be sure the butter is soft. You must mix everything by hand all at once. Fill spritz gun right immediately.
• Bake about 10 minutes or until cookies turn light golden brown.

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EGGNOG COOKIES

1 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tsp. rum extract (or rum)
1 egg
2 cups sifted flour
2 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. salt

• Cream butter; add sugar and cream until fluffy. Add vanilla and rum and mix. Add egg and mix.
• Combine flour, nutmeg and salt. Add gradually to creamed mixture and mix well. Chill thoroughly.
• Allowing one tablespoon dough for each cookie, shape into balls. Bake on ungreased baking sheet in a preheated 350 degree oven about 12 to 15 minutes. Cool. Frost with Rum Frosting.(makes about 4 dozen)
  

Rum Frosting

1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 to 2 tsp. rum extract (or rum)
2 to 2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
2 to 3 Tbsp. milk

Cream butter. Add rum and mix well. Add confectioners' sugar gradually and beat until smooth and creamy. Add milk as needed. Continue beating until smooth and creamy.

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YES, VIRGINIA, THERE IS A SANTA CLAUS

Eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York's Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history's most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps.

"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old. "Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. "Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.' "Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?"

VIRGINIA O'HANLON."115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET

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"VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. 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.Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. 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.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? 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, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding. No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

(http://www.newseum.org/yesvirginia/)