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.
