David Trexler, just under 4 years old, with the real Santa at Miller & Rhoads Tea Room in Richmond, Va., during the Christmas season in 1985. Compare the Santas and you will have to agree: It's the real deal ..

The author, Buzz Trexler, is 6 years old and his sister Sheree is 8 in this picture taken with the real Santa at Miller & Rhoads Tea Room in Richmond, Va., during the Christmas season in 1962.

Christians need Santa Claus — not nearly as much as we need Jesus, but we still need the fat guy.

Some might see that as blasphemy, but it could be those are the same people who need Santa the most.

Whenever I sense the joy of Christmas has left me during the season of Advent, I remember Miller & Rhoads Tea Room and the real Santa Claus.

Every family has Christmas traditions, whether it be mimosas and crab dip on Christmas morning, shopping on Black Friday, or braving the crowds at Fantasy of Trees. Growing up in Richmond, Va., the traditions included a ride on the real Santa Train, taking in the annual Christmas parade down Broad Street, and going to Miller & Rhoads Tea Room to have breakfast with the real Santa Claus and Snow Queen.

I kid you not.

We have the pictures to prove it.

We were able to share this joy with son David, who made his own pilgrimage to the real Santa’s lap in Christmas 1985. Daughter Elizabeth was too small to care, but at 21 she knows the family legend well. After all, she’s seen the pictures ... you can, too, if you’d like. I'm going to put them both up on this page when I get the chance.

The bearded fat guy whose lap my sister Sheree and I sat upon was the same bearded fat guy who summoned my nearly 4-year-old son with the words, "Come on over here, David."

(Now, how did he know David’s name if he wasn’t the real Santa Claus?)

Such memories flood my mind at Christmastime and bring a smile to my face — even when life experiences threaten to make Christmas dull, even dreadful for some. This is the human reality of Christmas: There is a need to embrace legends and fantasy because the reality is even more difficult to fathom.

The reality is that God cared enough for all of creation to put on skin, walk among us and experience death — even death on a cross — so that we might fellowship with him. Instead of leaving us to wonder what God is like and what our creator wants us to do in this world, he showed us in the perfect example of Jesus Christ. Even as that light shines, many Christians continue to live dark, joyless lives, because there is a failure to understand the reality.

So, we need Santa to bring a smile to our face.

There’s a part of me that says, "Well, whatever gets the job done." And yet, as a disciple of the God-man, who started out as the God-child, there is the knowledge that the heart should swell at the reality, not just the legend and fantasy.

Then again, maybe it’s the same syndrome that causes us to be drawn to the "baby Jesus," but run from the God-man Jesus.

Sometimes the knowledge is just too difficult for mere humans to face.

The Rev. Frank "Buzz" Trexler is managing editor at The Daily Times and pastor of Green Meadow United Methodist Church, Alcoa, Tennessee. You can e-mail him at PastorBuzz@nxs.net.