Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus

Editorial Page, New York Sun, 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:

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 sceptic al 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.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!!