On the Ninth Day of Christmas: Nine Paragraphs on Faith in Christmas Movies

A bad definition of faith from Miracle on 34th Street (1947): "Faith is believing in things when common sense tells you not to." Faith is trust, not belief against reason or against common sense.

A good account of faith from the same film: "It's not just Kris that's on trial. It's everything he stands for. It's kindness, joy, love, and all other intangibles." Intangible things are real. This is very Augustinian.

Another good comment on faith in the same film: "Just because things don't turn out the way you want them to the first time . . . you've still got to believe in people." See Augustine's De Fide Rerum Invisibilium: Fides/Trust/Faith in people is one of his illustrations of the rationality of faith.

In fact, belief in the existence of love, of kindness, of people, and of good intentions is 100% common sense.

Kudos to Prancer for quoting from a classic text: "Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus."

A line from the original: "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 our life its highest beauty and joy." Another line: "The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see."

Of course, that's the right way of thinking about real non-physical things and the rationality of believing in them. And they are more real.

But no, Virginia, there isn't really a Santa Claus as such. However, the original Saint Nicholas could tell you a thing or two about the G-d who, dear Virginia, there really IS.

Saving the best for last, The Santa Clause probably has the best Augustinianism of all the Christmas movies: "Seeing isn't believing. Believing is seeing."