Miracle Street

Growing up in Ontario, California, Christmas was an occasion to celebrate. 

My dad loved Christmas and would decorate the house with multi-colored bulbs. He would put Christmas movies on all week. Santa Clause Conquers the Martians, Rudolph and A Christmas Carol, of course, but Miracle on 34th Street was always my favorite. The black and white version with Natalie Wood as Susan, the little girl who doesn't believe.

There was always something magical in the way my dad celebrated Christmas. With homemade Pillsbury donuts covered in sugar. And eggnog which us girls refused to drink. Candy canes and fudge. Christmas music on the stereo. Dad clearly believed in Christmas and the power of intention. He even somehow, someway, opened a bar, a tavern called "The Big O", that he always dreamed of owning. It was all his while it lasted.

In Miracle on 34th Street, there is also something magical when Susan hears Kris Kringle speak Dutch to a little girl. Susan starts to believe and when Kris refuses to disavow Christmas to Susan's mom, she almost fires him. She changes her mind when Mister Macy praises the "new" Santa.

Kris tells her, "Christmas isn't just a day, it's a frame of mind." Kris also believes in the magic of "imagination". 

Most adults refuse to believe in magic. Kids believe. Kids know that they can be anything and anyone if only they believe. 

It took me fifty years to believe in the magic. I don't have kids, couldn't have kids, so I have to find and rekindle the magic in myself. 

And now, at fifty, I finally believe. I believe I can be anything and do anything. If only I believe. So I do.