Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus

Anna Elizabeth Henry

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On Friday evening while flipping channels I stumbled upon an endearing cartoon about the 'Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus' editorial. I was familiar with the editorial since often times one of the local newspapers in NYC publishes it around this time of year. The letter and its response have always awed me by how well thought out it was written and the message it conveyed, giving hope and the belief that something as magical as Santa is real. However, I never gave much thought to the people behind the letter to the editor and its corresponding answer, so after seeing the cute cartoon, I wondered how much of it was true, so I did some digging.

The author of the most reprinted editorial in the English language, Francis P. Church was a Civil War correspondent. He was born in Rochester in 1839 and attended Columbia College (today Columbia University) and graduated in 1859 just as war brewed between the North and the South. He and his brother, William C. Church worked together during the war on the 'The Army & Navy Journal'.

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Francis P. Church staff writer of The New York Sun - 1897

The letter that spurned this famous editorial was written by eight year old Virginia O'Hanlon born in NYC in 1889. She lived on the Upper West Side with her family. Her father worked for the corner's office. She asked him if Santa Claus was real since many of her friends were at that age where doubts had arisen to Santa's legitimacy. He suggested she write to the Sun, since "if you see it in the Sun it's so".

So little Virginia took up her pen and wrote a letter to the editor.
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The original letter was thought to have been lost in a fire, but turned up on the Antiques Roadshow - it was given to Virginia's granddaughter and pasted into a scrapbook!

Church was an unlikely candidate for a sentimental response to such a letter and bristled when his editor Edward Mitchell handed him Virginia's question and asked him to come up with a masterful reply - under a deadline, no less and it had to be under 500 words! The editorial immediately became popular, though its author remained a mystery until 1906 when Church passed away and his authorship was finally revealed.

As for Virginia, she eventually married, had a daughter and went on to become a teacher and principal (she obtained a doctorate from Fordham) in NYC. Virginia received a steady stream of mail about her letter throughout her life. She would include a copy of the editorial in her replies. In an interview later in life, she credited it with shaping the direction of her life quite positively.

From the New York Sun - Sept. 21, 1897


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, 115 West 95th Street

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except what 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 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. 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, fancy, 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 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.
 

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I love it! Made my day. Thank you for posting this.

"The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see."

:happy:

You're welcome! As adults I think its easy to push aside the magic of Christmas. Oddly enough on Friday when I found that cartoon I was boo-hooing Christmas as an endless list of things to do and this reinvigorated my Christmas spirit.
 
Thanks so much for this thread, love it!! Mom brought that book home in the 60's, or early 70's can't remember. Thanks for bringing the whole story to us. I can't find the original on LoC but found it reprinted across the country, must have been a wonderful Christmas story from then until now. Gosh, what a lovely all-around thread this time of year- thanks again!

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This was part of an advertisement ( oops ), the rest were not. Just used this as the most eye-catching.
 
This was a terrific thread- looking at all the amazing contributions here in Ladies Tea over Christmas. Will bring more tomorrow before the house erupts.

Virginia kept faith with her quest to help the poor and unfortunate all her life- teaching classes herself, too. This is from a wonderful article, well worth reading.
http://thepublici.blogspot.com/2015/11/yes-virginia.html

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This was a terrific thread- looking at all the amazing contributions here in Ladies Tea over Christmas. Will bring more tomorrow before the house erupts.

Virginia kept faith with her quest to help the poor and unfortunate all her life- teaching classes herself, too. This is from a wonderful article, well worth reading.
http://thepublici.blogspot.com/2015/11/yes-virginia.html

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What a lovely blog post! Virginia wasn't kidding when she said that letter changed her life of the better. What an incredible woman caring for the least fortunate children and always trying to keep the magic of Christmas alive.
 
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