In December 1897, an eight-year-old girl named Virginia wrote to the editor of the New York Sun. She said her friends told her there was no Santa Claus and asked for the truth. The answer was that her friends were wrong.

“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 your life its highest beauty and joy,” writes the editor. “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.”

These words are remembered and reprinted many times over in later years.  “No Santa Claus? Thank God! He lives and lives forever.”

The original article was written just before Dickies From Gunton: Canadian Brothers in Two World Wars were born. And then, when they were just young boys, an impressive department store called Eaton’s was built on Portage Avenue in Winnipeg, (where the hockey arena is now). It became a shopping and holiday destination.

Eaton’s opened in 1905, and started Winnipeg’s Santa Claus Parade soonafter. During the holiday season, people enjoyed the beautiful display displays in the store windows. Parents brought their children to see Santa. (Some of the magic lingers at the Manitoba Children’s Museum where they have preserved Eaton’s fairy tale vignettes.)

While Percy Dickie is serving overseas, the Santa tradition continues in Winnipeg.

After the First World War- 1918

On Christmas Eve 1918, just over a month after the Armistice ends the Great War or First World War but months before all the surviving soldiers return, a front page headline in the Winnipeg Tribune declares the role of Santa Claus will be played by many prominent Winnipeggers.

The mayor, who is just the right build for a Santa Claus, will put on a mask and outfit and “in a voice even more dignified than the one he uses at council meetings will pick presents off a tree at the home of relatives.”

The new mayor elect chimes in. “What’s Christmas without a tree? And I’ll be there as Santa too, but I hope my kids don’t read this. They think the guy who suddenly appears is the old man from the northern regions.”

A boy reporter captures the emotions of the holiday season in his first story. It’s published just over a month after the Armistice. Everyone is smiling, people are coming to their office jobs on time, courteous and polite with customers. “Why? Christmas is but one day away.”

This year’s holiday will be bittersweet, he writes. “Some families will have the happiest Christmas dinner they ever had because their loved ones are home from the war. Some families will sit at the table with one less, who went to France and gave his life for his country that others may enjoy their Christmas over here. To the big majority, however, this will be a real merry Christmas because the world is again in a peaceful condition.”

After the Second World War- 1945

Shortly after Earl Dickie returns from overseas service in the Second World War, it is a white Christmas with over six inches of fresh snow. “In Winnipeg, thousands thronged the streets and stores. Many were ex-servicemen savouring the richness of a civilian Christmas,” the newspaper reports.

They didn’t catch the name of the man wearing a Hong Kong patch on his sleeve. But they describe him, standing in front of a counter of men’s toiletries, “bottles and jars of shaving cream, spicy colognes and talcums, placing them to his nostrils and sniffing appreciatively. He just couldn’t tear himself away!”

The patch indicates he had served in Hong Kong. Just four years before, Earl and his fellow Winnipeg Grenadiers were among the Canadian troops defending the British colony. They were defeated in battle on Christmas Eve. Survivors were taken as prisoners of war and spent the ensuing years suffering terrible starvation and abuse. This fall, survivors had returned home extremely underweight and in poor health.

And now, this man was here, in a festive and familiar holiday shopping destination, marveling at the luxuries before him.

Yes, Virginia. There is a Santa Claus.

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