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, may 10

                        times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to

                         make glad the heart of childhood.