The Holly King

  ~ Maureen O’Hara, coldly and unconvincingly modern, atheistic really, in “Miracle on 34th Street:” “I think we should be realistic and completely truthful with our children. Not let them grow up believing in a lot of myths and legends. Like Santa Claus, for example.” She’s quickly tag-teamed by Alistair Sim practically spitting ‘Humbug!’ ~

  “What amazes me every year,” Carson explains over, I suppose obligatory, images of domestic, Eisenhowerian Christmas perfection, i.e, skirted mothers baking, flannel-robed fathers piping, elated children grinning, “is the effort.

  “Even though it’s a complete mystery – an ancient deity's birthday – we work to get it right. Every year we re-receive that mystery in our hands and hold on to it for dear life.

  “My own family wasn’t immune to this.”