Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus

Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus

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 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 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 th