Our pandemic holiday season

The holidays are upon us. Ornaments, stockings and lights are already unpacked and being strung and hung, respectively, on fences and chimney mantles. Records – well CDs – are being played and favorite Christmas books are being read again.

As a society we have many traditions and reflect back on a shared culture and history -- or introduce new generations and newcomers to aspects of the past we love. For newspaper editors, the “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus” editorial is the all-time, worldwide, most often printed editorial, ever.

The start of that true story, some 125 years ago, in a much simpler time, was a New York City father putting off that most troubling question children reaching a certain age start to ask: “Is there a Santa Claus?” Seizing a teachable moment, he prompted her to write the New York Sun for an answer. The Sun printed her letter and answered her with an editorial.

Her letter:

“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?”

Once people believed in, relied on and trusted newspapers. They read them cover to cover every day and every week. Newspapers helped stitch the fabric of community together, providing a regular touchstone and common anchor.

Once nothing was more local than the local newspaper. Of course, once nothing was more common than coming to town in a horse and buggy.

No one has come to town in a horse and wagon in generations. Today, La Conner is full of specialty shops and boutiques, not general or department stores, but still it is our hometown, or anchor town, the place whose streets we know best.

This year, our town, our neighbors, are unable to gather and enjoy the usual community festivities that December brings. Santa will not come to Gilkey Square in the fire department’s white truck and light the Town tree this first Friday of December Instead, we will stay warm at home and watch it on Zoom.

Santa will not hold children and grandchildren who pose for photos with him while parents and grandparents sit down for the Rotary Club’s pancake breakfast. And people near and far, most certainly, will not crowd the boardwalk for the lighted boat parade next weekend.

No, we are set apart as well as pulled apart by the coronavirus, the worst pandemic to ravage the world in 100 years.

When we come to town to shop in December, we will show our concern for each other and the commitment to our healthy community and vital, shared future, by staying apart and only gathering small, as the public health professionals are advising.

Merchants, perhaps especially in La Conner, are hoping you will shop local. Town governments, thinking of tax revenues as well as business and employee health, want you to shop local. Newspaper publishers, who champion their communities, hope you will spend extra time in the fabulous establishments promoted in the pages of their newspapers.

This newspaper is endorsing shopping local, minimizing travel and contact and gathering small.

But the pandemic can no more stop Christmas from coming than the Grinch could steal it. As Dr. Seuss foretold, it will come just the same.

“He hadn’t stopped Christmas from coming! It came!

“Somehow or other, it came just the same!

…

“Welcome Christmas. Bring your cheer,

“Cheer to all Whos, far and near.

“Christmas Day is in our grasp

“So long as we have hands to clasp.

“Christmas Day will always be

“Just as long as we have we.

“Welcome Christmas while we stand

“Heart to heart and hand in hand.”

Yes, heart to heart, all of us, every one of us can connect. Alas, unless we are family members or in a household unit, we cannot stand hand in hand this pandemic Christmas season.

But “we have we.” We can greet each other on the streets of La Conner and, from behind our masks and six feet distance, smile and wish each other a Merry Christmas.