Miracle on 34th Street (1 of 4)
Series: Christmas at the Movies
Joe Alain
Luke 1:26-38
In the famous 1947 film classic, Miracle on 34th Street Doris Walker frantically recruits a last minute replacement for a drunken Santa for Macy's Christmas parade. He seems ideal for the job and perhaps for good reason - he says his name is Kris Kringle and that he's the real Santa Claus! He proves to be popular with the children and the customers but gets into a little trouble when he begins referring shoppers to other stores for toys Macy's does not have. When Kris has a run-in with the Department store's psychological tester, the man tries to have him committed leading to a court case where Doris' lawyer neighbor Fred Gailey tries to prove in court that Kris is the real Santa Claus. More important to Kris throughout all of this is to get Doris and her daughter Susan to believe in him.
The real miracle on 34th street is how hearts are changed from doubt and cynicism to belief and hope. It's not so much that Santa Claus is on trial as it is our ability to believe that there are some things in life that you cannot see (''intangibles) but are just as real. It's believing in the spirit of Christmas that matters, as Kris Kringle says in the movie, ''Christmas isn't just a day, it's a frame of mind.'' Or as Fred Gailey put it to Doris the skeptic in a somewhat heated exchange, ''Faith is believing when common sense tells you not to. Don't you see? It's not just Kris that's on trial, it's everything he stands for. It's kindness and joy and love and all the other intangibles.''
Of course in the movie it doesn't really matter if the story is fact or fiction. The important thing is that if you believe in Santa strongly enough, he becomes real to you. The actual story of Christmas, the birth of Christ also involves a miracle, but this one happened on an unknown street in Nazareth some 2000 years ago, and it really does matter whether this is fact or fiction. We find this Ch ...
Series: Christmas at the Movies
Joe Alain
Luke 1:26-38
In the famous 1947 film classic, Miracle on 34th Street Doris Walker frantically recruits a last minute replacement for a drunken Santa for Macy's Christmas parade. He seems ideal for the job and perhaps for good reason - he says his name is Kris Kringle and that he's the real Santa Claus! He proves to be popular with the children and the customers but gets into a little trouble when he begins referring shoppers to other stores for toys Macy's does not have. When Kris has a run-in with the Department store's psychological tester, the man tries to have him committed leading to a court case where Doris' lawyer neighbor Fred Gailey tries to prove in court that Kris is the real Santa Claus. More important to Kris throughout all of this is to get Doris and her daughter Susan to believe in him.
The real miracle on 34th street is how hearts are changed from doubt and cynicism to belief and hope. It's not so much that Santa Claus is on trial as it is our ability to believe that there are some things in life that you cannot see (''intangibles) but are just as real. It's believing in the spirit of Christmas that matters, as Kris Kringle says in the movie, ''Christmas isn't just a day, it's a frame of mind.'' Or as Fred Gailey put it to Doris the skeptic in a somewhat heated exchange, ''Faith is believing when common sense tells you not to. Don't you see? It's not just Kris that's on trial, it's everything he stands for. It's kindness and joy and love and all the other intangibles.''
Of course in the movie it doesn't really matter if the story is fact or fiction. The important thing is that if you believe in Santa strongly enough, he becomes real to you. The actual story of Christmas, the birth of Christ also involves a miracle, but this one happened on an unknown street in Nazareth some 2000 years ago, and it really does matter whether this is fact or fiction. We find this Ch ...
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