Eight year old Virginia O'Hanlon lived in New York City and firmly believed in Santa Claus. Some of her young friends said there was no Santa Claus which put doubt in her mind, so she asked her father.
Virginias father, Philip, a doctor who worked for the New York Police Department. recommended his daughter write to their favorite newspaper The Sun seeking an answer to one of the most famous questions of all time.
"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."
(September 21, 1897)
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 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 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.
A CHILDS WONDER
"Daddy," she said, her eyes full of tears,
"Will you talk to me and quiet my fears?"
Those bad boys at school are spreading a lie
'Bout the impossibility of reindeer that fly.
There's no Santa Claus, they say with a grin,
There's not one now and never has been.
How can one man take all those toys?
To thousands of girls and boys?
But I told them daddy, that they were not right,
That I would come home and find out tonight.
Mama said wait until you get home
Please tell me now that I was not wrong."
Her daddy looked at her questioning face
And puffed his pipe while his frantic mind raced.
He had put this thing off as long as he could,
He had to think fast and it better be good.
Whispering a prayer, he began with a smile,
"Well climb on my lap, dear, let's talk a while."
"Remember at church how we learned to pray,
Asking God to take care of us each day?
And you know how we say grace before each meal?
To this same God whom we know to be real
Though we never see Him, we know He is there
Watching his children with such loving care."
"God started Christmas a long time ago
When He gave us His son to love and to know.
A spirit of giving came with that birth,
And God's generosity filled the whole earth.
Man had to name this spirit of giving
Just as He names all things that are living."
"The name Santa Claus came to someone's mind.
Probably the best name of any to find.
There is, you can see, and I think it quite clear,
Truly a Santa who visits each year.
Spirits like God, whom we never see
He enters the hearts of your mother and me."
Each year at Christmas for one special night
We become him and make everything right.
But the REAL spirit of Christmas is in you and in me,
And I hope you are old enough now to see
That as we believe and continue to give,
Our friend Santa Claus will continue to live."