Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus
Editorial Page, New York Sun, September 21, 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
V
irginia,
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.
Y
es,
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.
N
ot
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.
Y
ou
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.
N
o
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.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!!
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as of February 21, 1998
most recent revision March 22, 2000
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