Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus

A famous letter from Virgina O'Hanlon to the editorial of
The New York Sun, first printed in 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

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.

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