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Virginia |
The
famous editorial "Yes, Virginia There is a Santa
Claus", written by Francis P. Church and published in The
New York Sun on September 21, 1897. The 8-year-old Virginia is
Virginia O'Hanlon.
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Dear
Editor:
I am 8 years old. Some of my
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
aboundand give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas!
how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Calus! It
would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be
no childlike faiththen, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable
this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and
sight. The eternal 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 they
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.
No Santa Claus! Thank God, he lives, and he lives forever. A
thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand
years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of
childhood.
The New York Sun, September 21 1897 |
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