Yes,
Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus
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
The Editorial...
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.
About
the Exchange...
Francis
P. Church's editorial, "Yes Virginia, There is
a Santa Claus" was an immediate sensation, and
went on to became one of the most famous editorials
ever written. It first appeared in the 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,
ŒIf you see it in the The 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 on the The 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 cant.‰ 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.
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 the Hudson Valley community of Valatie, N.Y.
