Kris Kringle Quotes in Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

Kris Kringle: Oh, Christmas isn't just a day, it's a frame of mind... and that's what's been changing. That's why I'm glad I'm here, maybe I can do something about it.

Kris Kringle: You know what the imagination is?

Susan Walker: Oh, sure. That's when you see things, but they're not really there.

Kris Kringle: Well, that can be caused by other things, too.

Kris Kringle: No, but don't you see, dear? Some children wish for things they couldn't possibly use like real locomotives or B-29s.

Doris: Would you please tell her that you're not really Santa Claus, that actually is no such person?

Kris Kringle: Well, I hate to disagree with you, but not only IS there such a person, but here I am to prove it.

District Attorney: What is your name?

Kris Kringle: Kris Kringle.

District Attorney: Where do you live?

Kris Kringle: That's what this hearing will decide.

Judge Henry X. Harper: A very sound answer, Mister Kringle.

District Attorney: Do you really believe that you're Santa Claus?

Kris Kringle: Of course.

District Attorney: [long pause] The state rests, your honor.

Fred Gailey: All my life I've wondered something, and now's my chance to find out. I'm going to find the answer to a question that's puzzled the world for centuries. Does Santa Claus sleep with his whiskers outside or in?

Kris Kringle: Always sleep with them out. Cold air makes them grow.

Kris Kringle: [smells other Santa's breath] You've been drinking.

Drunken Santa Claus: Well, it's cold outside. A man's gotta do something to keep warm.

Kris Kringle: You see, Mrs. Walker, this is quite an opportunity for me. For the past 50 years or so I've been getting more and more worried about Christmas. Seems we're all so busy trying to beat the other fellow in making things go faster and look shinier and cost less that Christmas and I are sort of getting lost in the shuffle.

Kris Kringle: Now wait a minute, Susie. Just because every child can't get his wish that doesn't mean there isn't a Santa Claus.

Kris Kringle: To market, to market, to buy a fat pig! Home again, home again, jiggety-jig. To market, to market, to buy a fat hog! Home again, home again, jiggety-...

Kris Kringle: If that's normal, I don't want it!

Kris Kringle: You think I'm a fraud, don't you?

Dorey Walker: Fraud is a bit too strong of a word.

Kris Kringle: But you don't believe in me.

Dorey Walker: I believe that Christmas is for children.

Kris Kringle: Well your daughter doesn't believe in me, either.

Dorey Walker: I don't think that there's any harm in not believing in a figure that many do acknowledge to be a fiction.

Kris Kringle: Oh, but there is. I'm not just a whimsical figure who wears a charming suit and affects a jolly demeanor. You know, I I I'm a symbol. I'm a symbol of the human ability to be able to suppress the selfish and hateful tendencies that rule the major part of our lives. If you can't believe, if you can't accept anything on faith, then you're doomed for a life dominated by doubt.

[first lines]

Grandson: Ask him. Ask him. Look at him, Grandpa. Ask him.

Judge Henry Harper: Uh, I'm sorry. He, uh he thinks you're Santa Claus.

[Kris Kringle and Judge Harper laugh]

Kris Kringle: [quietly to Harper's grandson] I am.

[to Harper]

Kris Kringle: Merry Christmas.

Dorey Walker: Would you be our Santa Claus?

Kris Kringle: Uh, me?

Dorey Walker: Well, do you have any experience?

Kris Kringle: Well just a little.

Kris Kringle: Well, I would greatly like to oblige, Mr. Collins, but I cannot make this reindeer fly.

Ed Collins: I didn't think so.

Kris Kringle: He only flies on Christmas Eve.

Kris Kringle: Mr. Collins, I hope you've taken down that old TV antenna. I ripped my pants on it last year.

Kris Kringle: Hi Judge, how is the grandson of yours?

[Harper gets shocked]

Kris Kringle: The parade? He thought I looked like Santa Claus.

Judge Henry Harper: Oh yeah.

Bailiff: Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

Kris Kringle: Yes, but don't I put my hand on a Bible?

Bailiff: No, sir, you don't.

Kris Kringle: Well, I'll put my hand on my heart instead. I do.