Subject: Yes, Virgina, there is a Santa Claus
!
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(for more seasonal resources visit)
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This question 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.
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.
The Editor
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_/ John S. Walker _/
_/ Publisher, CSS Internet News (tm) _/
_/ (Internet Training and Research) _/
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_/ Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, L8P 4X1 _/
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