Yes, Virginia there is a Santa

Yes, Virginia,

There Is A Santa Claus

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.