The following editorial, one of the most popular editorials of all time, appeared in The New York Sun in 1897. Eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon had begun to doubt there was a Santa Claus. Her father, Dr. Philip O’Hanlon, suggested she write to the New York Sun, assuring her, “If you see it in The Sun, it's so."
"IS THERE A SANTA CLAUS?
We take pleasure in answering at
once and 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.
115 West Ninety-Fifth Street.
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 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 life 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 may 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
supernatural 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."
