2006-12-22 08:27:42 · 9 answers · asked by sandune3 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Mythology & Folklore
Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus
Editorial printed in the New York Sun in 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:
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 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.
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Now you know! Merry Christmas!
2006-12-22 08:32:00 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
She was a little girl in the 1800's whose father told her to ask a reporter at a New York paper (The Sun I think) if there was a Santa Claus she wrote to him and he answered her question and built an entire article outlining the season for the readers his opening line in the article was Yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus.
2006-12-22 08:37:59 · answer #2 · answered by crawler 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
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
Francis P. Church
responded to this little girl In the New York Sun
Sept 21, 1897
2006-12-22 08:35:32 · answer #3 · answered by rob u 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Virginia was a young girl who wrote to a newspaper asking if Santa Claus existed because her father said that if you see it in the New York Sun then it has to be true.
2006-12-22 08:32:02 · answer #4 · answered by Ice 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Virginia was a little girl who wrote a letter to a newspaper, asking if Santa Claus existed. The letter and printed answer became famous.
2006-12-22 08:31:16 · answer #5 · answered by regerugged 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
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2016-12-11 14:26:06 · answer #6 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It was an editorial to the New York Times asked by a small child in the ealy 1900's Yes she is real and I do not know her last name but she really asked and the editorial came out. I believe if you check there archives you will find out what you want to know, I am not aware that they ever gave her last name
2006-12-22 08:34:28 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
8-year-old daughter of Dr. Philip O'Hanlon, a coroner's assistant on Manhattan's Upper West Side in 1897.
2006-12-22 08:34:17 · answer #8 · answered by Bored Enough To Be Here 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
little girl
2006-12-22 14:29:32 · answer #9 · answered by myangel_101211 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋