At this holiday season, we take great pleasure
in reprinting one of the classic newspaper
editorials of all time — perhaps the best
Christmas editorial ever written. It has
survived the test of time and seems particularly
fitting and poignant this year.
The editorial was written by Francis Church
of the New York Sun a little over 100 years ago
— Sept. 21, 1897.
And yes, readers, there was a real Virginia.
Her name was Virginia O’Hanlon and she was
eight years old when she took her pressing
question to The Sun. Virginia lived deep into
old age. Her question and Francis Church’s
answer have outlived them both and the
newspaper in which they first appeared because
he captured an important essence of
Christmas:
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 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
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 have 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 men, 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 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
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.
