When I watched this movie as a child, I was sure that Kris Kringle was supposed to be Santa. But when I watched it again earlier, I had a change of opinion. Maybe Kris is just a nice, extremely smart/educated, old man who really loves Christmas.
So why does Kris go around telling people he's Santa Claus? Kris explains his position once in the film to Susan's mother (a skeptic who he was probably trying to reach on an intellectual level). He views Santa as a symbol of humanity transcending its selfish drives. He doesn't necessarily want you to believe that Santa exists: He wants you to believe in the Christmas ideals that Santa is supposed to represent. To that end, he roleplays as Santa a lot -- even when no one is watching! He seldom breaks character!
Several times in the movie, Kris says things which imply he's not really Santa. He characterizes the drunken Santa at the beginning as a 'disgrace to the uniform' (because being Santa is a role that people other than this particular Kris Kringle can fulfill). When that same person assaults him, he feels that his being confined to a mental institution will preserve the good name of Santa. In other words, he's not at all concerned that his being confined might affect the delivery of the world's Christmas presents.
When Susan asks Kris to get her a father, a baby brother, and a very specific house for Christmas, he starts getting visibly nervous. Unfortunately, he's not a magical man who can arbitrarily make such things happen. Nevertheless, he agrees to work on it. And as you see, he used his contacts and his pull at Cole's to make two of those things happen.
One day, Susan will look back on this and realize what happened. Some random stranger took time out of his life to help her find a father, a nice house in suburbia, and ultimately one or more siblings. And if that's not a Christmas miracle, then I don't know what is.
Submitted December 25, 2017 at 12:07PM by theultimateburner http://ift.tt/2C13P0q