Usually during the Christmas season, there’s a tremendous push for nostalgia.

There are the classics of younger days which appear on our television screens. The Christmas music that starts on some local radio stations the day after Thanksgiving.

Stores beginning their holiday sales while Halloween and Turkey Day items sit silent, marked down on a clearance rack in some corner of the sales area.

There’s something about the warm fuzziness a mind conjures when we hear about chestnuts roasting on an open fire or Jack Frost nipping at your nose.

And let’s not forget about the busy city sidewalks dressed in holiday style.

I don’t know that all those things still exist in these days of online shopping and home delivery.

And as I age, it seems that I’m losing the childlike enthusiasm of the boy I was in the coal patch where I grew up. I’ve lost interest in the TV shows, and honestly, though my favorite Christmas song was Gene Autry’s “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer,” I haven’t listened to Christmas music at all this season.

As insurance companies are wagering that my Christmases yet to come are getting fewer, I decided that this year, I might turn to Christmases past to rekindle the spirit. So I looked to an old friend for some help.

Newspapers.

In one of my journalism history classes a lifetime ago, we discussed the impact of how the print media shaped our culture.

Advertising attracted people to the major retailers. Macy’s, Gimbel’s, Lit Brothers and Wanamaker’s in the larger cities staged holiday extravaganzas that seemed to get bigger and better every year.

Locally, I’m told, Bright’s was the store of note to spread the holiday spirit.

What sticks in my mind when it comes to the holidays is the question of an 8-year-old girl to her father’s favorite newspaper, the New York Sun.

The letter of Virginia O’Hanlon asking the Sun’s editor if Santa Claus really exists has become a classic of the Christmas season. The response, by editorial writer Francis Church in 1897, captures and expresses its spirit.

You’ll see it here in the Times News, I’m certain.

Though I’m not an expert on the topic, the response may have kindled a spirit of caring and compassion in young Virginia, who went on to become a teacher and mother. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Hunter College and a masters at Columbia University.

Her doctoral dissertation, “The Importance of Play,” was presented in 1930 at Fordham University.

Virginia wondered if playing hastened a child’s development and enhanced children’s chances of happiness in the future. She carried throughout her life and career the notion that play was a major factor in the world of a small child. She died at 81 in a nursing home near Albany, New York, in 1971.

But the message she sent to the editor of the Sun, and its now famous response continue to preserve and inspire the spirit of Christmas for many.

It wasn’t always so.

The letter and response were published in September, long before Christmas. And it didn’t really catch on until years later.

In 1924, the Sun gave in to reader request and began running the editorial at Christmastime until the paper closed around 1950.

The editor’s reply said naysayers of Santa’s existence were wrong and were affected by “the skepticism of a skeptical age.”

But readers prevailed and have embraced the piece written 127 years ago. It still appears in print and online in countless places.

Maybe because it makes us feel warm and fuzzy.

Maybe because it reflects the perception of the classic Victorian era that has come to be associated with the Christmas season.

It was a sure way to keep the spirit of Santa alive when my son was young. After all, what better way for a newspaper man to feed a child’s sense of wonder than to show him “proof” via the printed word?

Or maybe it’s because it brings old editors like me to think about growing up in the coal patch and the memories of the laughter, singing and goodwill of the people who helped me believe all those years ago.

It’s a lesson we can all share, hopefully all year long, in the newfound skepticism of the current skeptical age.

Thanks, Virginia. Thanks, Frank Church.

I wonder if I can find Gene Autry on Spotify.

Merry Christmas!

ED SOCHA|tneditor@tnonline.com

Ed Socha is a retired newspaper editor with more than 40 years’ experience in community journalism.