Why was it such a misfit?

Dear Sirs,
I think Homer gets stupider every year.
Virginia O'Hanlon

Eighteen years later, a third stab was made at this, animated once again, starring the voices of celebrities even bigger than Charles Bronson.

One thing's for sure: Virginia's family is a lot better off financially here than they were in the last interpretation. Their house is huge. Also they're not Irish anymore. The first time we see this very round-headed variant of Virginia, she's showing her friend the Christmas-themed pop-up book she's created. It's pretty elaborate for an eight-year-old in 1897 to have constructed, with moving parts including a flying sleigh that arcs over a city on command.

We don't see much of Virginia's parents in this one but her dad, played by Neil Patrick Harris, is some kind of wacky inventor and her mom, played by Jennifer Love Hewitt.....helps ghosts ascend to the afterlife or something, I dunno, it's never defined what she does.

"Listen to this!" Dad says as he reads the Sun. "A train...that moves UNDERGROUND...across the WHOLE CITY! It's a complex streetcar system inside a network of tunnels."
"Sounds a little far-fetched, dear," his wife replies.
"Hey, if they say it in the Sun...."
"I know, I know. It's so."

We cut to the street and an unkempt man who's listed in the credits as "Scraggly Santa" and whose voice is credited to Steve Buscemi, He's ringing his bell and shouting for charity money, but he's not getting much, and he's bad at the act. A guy with a thick mustache passes by, and he almost doesn't recognize him before he exclaims "Wait a minute....FRANCIS CHURCH??"

This Francis, played by Alfred Molina, is a complete 180 from the previous one -- he's an absolute jerk. Scraggly is on the street because Church fired him from the paper. "How are things over there?" Scraggly asks. "Same as when you worked there....bad news, worse news, and awful news," Church grumbles.
"Well, sir, in times like this you've got two choices: accept the bad news, or make GOOD news." He holds out his bucket.

"I guarantee you one penny won't do any good." Church fishes change out of his pocket and flicks it in.
"Of course it will, Frank!" Scraggly says confidently. "That's why they call it CHANGE."
"You always WERE bad at coming up with headlines," Church growls as he walks away.

Virginia's friend, Ollie, has questions about Santa Claus. namely "How can Santa be at the North Pole supervising toy production AND ringing a bell on our street corner at the same time?" Even Virginia knows THAT Santa isn't the authentic edition, and though Scraggly tries to convince them otherwise, the top half of his beard falls off mid-impression.

"Okay, fine. I'm not Santa. Not even close, But, uhh...I work for him!"
"YOU work for SANTA?" Virginia scoffs.
"Well, I'm just doing what Santa WOULD be doing if he were here, which he's not, because he's extremely busy."
Neither of them swallow it, and walk away.

Later that day, elsewhere, Virginia is showing her friends the pop-up book. All of them believe in Santa (for a change) except ONE neighborhood kid: the vain rich stuck-up girl with the blonde curls. Yup, it's THAT archetype. Charlotte sashays over to Virginia in her expensive coat and says "You ALL still think Santa's REAL? Oh, that's HYS-TER-ICAL. Maybe when YOU'RE nine and a half, you'll understand." Having stated her opinion on the matter, she walks off to go bother Sabrina the Teenage Witch or Marinette.

To show Charlotte she's wrong, Virginia is determined to find some kind of proof for Santa's existence. She spends several hours at the library digging through international Santa lore ("In Finland he rides a giant goat!") but none of it provides evidence to Virginia if the jolly man is real. She sighs.

One weird element of this that doesn't occur in any other adaption: a clock tower "Belief-O-Meter" that rises up or down with a loud CLANG dependng on what the characters are going through. If Virginia has a crisis of faith, the meter lowers, if her faith is restored, it rises. This may have been the meddling of Macy's, who co-financed the special and actually had Belief-O-Meters at the front of their stores that year. If I ever get around to covering Macy's Parades from this time period, you'll see one at Herald Square above the Macy's entrance.

Virginia passes by Scraggly again, and notices he's now shivering in the cold. "Where's your red coat?"
"Someone needed it more than me."
Virginia looks to the right and sees a woman with a baby walking off in the coat.

"I was wondering. What did you mean when you said you work for Santa?"
"Well, what I meant was...I try to do things Santa would. Try to make things better."
"Does he pay you?"
"Do I LOOK like I have a steady income?"

At that moment Scraggly gets a contribution to his bucket, but it turns out to be a dinner roll. He protests, but then looks around for anyone who might be watching, and scarfs it.

Pop is fiddling with some contraption when Virginia interrupts him, and asks if there's a Santa Claus.

"Well, let's examine the facts. Someone brought you presents last year, correct?"
"Yes..."
"And someone ate the milk and cookies you left out, right?"
"Right...."

"Then it stands to reason that someone who leaves presents and likes cookies came to our house last Christmas. And given the logic of the present-bringing, cookie eating--"
"PAPA, THAT DOESN'T TELL ME ANYTHING."
"Well, I suppose the evidence is largely circumstantial--"

That's when Virginia spots the newspaper on Dad's desk and gets her idea. "If they say it in the SUN......it's SO."

At the offices of the Sun, the Worst Frank Church Ever is going through that day's mail and tossing most of it. "Don't these people ever stop WHINING and MOANING?"

But when he opens Virginia's envelope and reads her letter, he instantly reforms and starts writing that famous response. ...Actually, he does the harshest thing any Frank Church has ever done. He immediately declares it pablum and tosses it into the trash! The assistant editor tries to bargain with him: "Sir...she's a child."

"Everyone grows up sometime," is Church's cold response.

So if Church threw the letter away, how does it get back to him? Well, it first winds up with...Charlotte. As her mother is shoving her into a horse-drawn carriage she spots a paper with Virginia's writing on it lying next to some rubbish. She picks it up and thinks "haha, this is too good to be true."

Currently Virginia is with Scraggly. She pondered over what he said about making Santa "real" through acts of kindness, and decided to get him a new coat.

Charlotte comes around the corner and snipes at her: "Wow, I knew you liked Santa but THIS is PATHETIC." Virginia tells her to leave; she says she'll vacate after "delivering the mail," at which point she reveals the letter. "It was outside the newspaper office....IN A GARBAGE CAN!"

Virginia runs off crying, and Scraggly is outraged at Charlotte, who quickly escapes in the carriage while sticking her tongue out at him. He has to pay forward the kindness Virginia showed him, and make this right.

Virginia doesn't know of his fortunate past connection to the Sun. He is able to march right into Church's office and demand her letter get a second chance.
"It's nothing personal," says Church, "But I report the facts...and ONLY the facts. Would you have me print FICTION?"

"Not fiction....hope," pleads Scraggly. "Belief! Inspiration!"
"That is not my job."
"IT'S YOUR JOB TODAY, FRANK!" Scraggly yells forcefully. "When people believe, they make the world a better place. So you can tear up that letter, and leave the world the way it is, or you can answer it, and give this girl...this WHOLE CITY something to believe in."

Church paces back and forth all night, thinking on Scraggly's words and the words of the letter. Meanwhile Virginia is in complete despair. She's tearing down the Christmas decorations in her room in anger, and then sobbing while throwing her prized Santa pop-up book in the trash. The Belief-O-Meter is as low as it's ever been.

That, of course, changes the following day when Ollie knocks at her door and gasps, "YOUR LETTER! THE PAPER! SANTA!"

"Virginia, your friends are wrong," she reads joyously. "They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe, except for what they see. Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus." The town is instantly a lot more cheery! The town librarian throws paper garland across every bookshelf! Scragglty receives a generous donation in his pot -- from Church himself, who's come with a hat to complement his Santa coat! Even Charlotte is affected, discreetly mailing her own Santa letter to the mailbox. The town Belief-O-Meter fills to full capacity!

So is this one where Santa shows up at the end? Yes it is. A man in a red top hat and long white beard walks by and wishes Virtginia's family a Merry Christmas. He's not dressed traditionally and he doesn't say it outright, but it's definitely The Kringle and he proves it by reaching into his pocket and pulling out his own portable Belief-O-Meter. $19.95 at Macy's! The Fragrance Destination!

Why didn't it fit in?
It was more of a corporate thing so it was going to disappear from the airwaves the moment Macy's dropped their "Believe" campaign. But if you're going to watch one Virginia dramatization, this is the one to go for. Ranking them is difficult as none of them are terrible, but none of them are spectacular either. Maybe we'll get a fourth adaption of this event a few years from now that becomes the definitive version.