Yes Virginia, there is a Santa
Claus
Editorial Page, New York Sun, 1897
Editor: Francis P. Church
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 scepticism of a sceptical 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 have 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 of 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 mean, 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
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