Santa Claus
The central symbol of the piece is Santa Claus himself. Rather than provide a direct answer to Virginia’s question—is Santa Claus an actual living entity—the writer hedges his bet by providing an affirmative answer only to then forward the idea that Santa is a symbol of generosity and love.
Virginia’s Friends
The author tries to implicate Virginia’s doubting friends as symbols of a new age of skepticism which had come into vogue in the latter part of the 1800’s. The problem is not that they do qualify, but the hypocrisy involved. The author—Francis Church—was himself one of the leading figures of his time in fostering a new appreciation of skeptical thinking by virtue of having published editorials over the previous two decades casting aspersions on a society which blindly accepted religious doctrine on faith alone.
Childhood
The innocence and wonder of childhood is directly addressed as a symbol of light capable of illuminating the darkness of the world. The point of this symbolism is not exactly made clear—a flaw which afflicts the piece throughout—but it is made manifestly and purposely clear by the author anyway.
Dancing Fairies
Another example of a fairly random choice made for the purpose of creating an explicit symbolic linkage is the image of fairies dancing on the law. Perhaps this was some sort of thing at the time—fairies are not usually associated with lawns these days—but the whole point of raising this imagery is transform it into symbol. The fairies dancing on the lawn that you don’t see are somehow supposed to strengthen the author’s previous assertion that just because Santa Claus has never actually been seen by anybody does not mean that he doesn’t exist. The same questionable logic is applied to the dancing fairies. Taken together in this way, Santa and the fairies are symbolic incarnations of all things never seen that have to be accepted on faith, from black holes to Jesus Christ.
Baby Rattle
A baby rattle makes a sound, but in most design constructions, the mechanism which produces that sound is not visible. To solve that mystery requires taking the toy apart. Once this is done the effect is essentially that of solving one mystery while destroying another. The symbolism of the rattle is the author’s rationale for why it is sometimes better to simply accept the existence of things which appear in one form rather than trying to explain them entirely.
