@-}-- Day 2 of our 25 Days of Christmas --{-@
Yes, Virginia is a new animated Christmas special (on CBS December 17), based on the 1897 true story of the most famous newspaper editorial of all time.
By Francis P. Church, first published in The New York Sun in 1897. [See The People’s Almanac, pp. 1358–9.]
We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below,expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful authoris numbered among the friends of The Sun:
Dear Editor—
I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no SantaClaus. Papa says, “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.” Please tell methe truth, is there a Santa Claus?
Virginia O’Hanlon
Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected bythe skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except what theysee. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible bytheir little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s orchildren’s, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mereinsect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless worldabout him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping thewhole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly aslove and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they aboundand give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how drearywould be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as drearyas if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then,no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should haveno enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with whichchildhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe infairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all thechimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you didnot see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody seesSanta Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. Themost real things in the world are those that neither children nor mencan 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 orimagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in theworld.
You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noiseinside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not thestrongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest menthat ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance,can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beautyand glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this worldthere is nothing else real and abiding.
No Santa Claus! Thank God! He lives and lives forever. A thousandyears from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he willcontinue to make glad the heart of childhood.
