Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus
(Playing ~ "It's Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas")

From The People's Almanac, pp. 1358-9, originally published in The New York Sun in 1897

We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing
at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among
the friends of The Sun:

Dear Editor ~

I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says,
"If you see it in The Sun, it's so." Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?

~ Virginia O'Hanlon

 

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of
a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be
which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's
or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant,
in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by
the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity
and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest
beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus!
It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith
then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no
enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills
the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your
papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus,
but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody
sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things
in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies
dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there.
Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil
covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all
the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance,
can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond.
Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia,
nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

© 2000 Artist Tom Sierak
~ Visit his gallery ~

“ I knew it, I just knew it !
He is real ! There really is a Santa ! ”

~~~

About The Exchange

Francis P. Church's editorial, "Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus" was an immediate sensation,
and went on to become one of the most famous editorials ever written. It first appeared in
The New York Sun in 1897, almost a hundred years ago, and was reprinted annually until
1949 when the paper went out of business.

Thirty-six years after her letter was printed, Virginia O'Hanlon recalled the events
that prompted her letter:

"Quite naturally I believed in Santa Claus, for he had never disappointed me. But when
less fortunate little boys and girls said there wasn't any Santa Claus, I was filled with
doubts. I asked my father, and he was a little evasive on the subject.

"It was a habit in our family that whenever any doubts came up as to how to pronounce
a word or some question of historical fact was in doubt, we wrote to the
Question and Answer column in The Sun. Father would always say,
'If you see it inThe Sun, it's so,' and that settled the matter.

" 'Well, I'm just going to write The Sun and find out the real truth,' I said to father.

"He said, 'Go ahead, Virginia. I'm sure The Sun will give you the right answer,
as it always does.'"

And so Virginia sat down and wrote her parents' favorite newspaper.

Her letter found its way into the hands of a veteran editor, Francis P. Church. son of a
Baptist minister. Church had covered the Civil War for The New York Times and had worked
onThe New York Sun for 20 years, more recently as an anonymous editorial writer.
Church, a sardonic man, had for his personal motto, "Endeavour to clear your mind of can't."
When controversal subjects had to be tackled on the editorial page, especially those dealing
with theology, the assignments were usually given to Church.

Now, he had in his hands a little girl's letter on a most controversial matter, and he was
burdened with the responsibility of answering it.

"Is there a Santa Claus?" the childish scrawl in the letter asked. At once, Church knew that
there was no avoiding the question. He must answer, and he must answer truthfully.
And so he turned to his desk, and he began his reply which was to become one of
the most memorable editorials in newspaper history.

Church married shortly after the editorial appeared. He died in April, 1906,
leaving no children.

Virginia O'Hanlon went on to graduate from Hunter College with a Bachelor of Arts degree
at age 21. The following year she received her Master's from Columbia, and in 1912
she began teaching in the New York City school system, later becoming a principal.
After 47 years, she retired as an educator. Throughout her life she received a steady
stream of mail about her Santa Claus letter, and to each reply she attached an
attractive printed copy of the Church editorial. Virginia O'Hanlon Douglas died
on May 13, 1971, at the age of 81, in a nursing home in Valatie, N.Y.

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