About the Story

In 1897, eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon (1889-1971) wrote to the then-prominent New York Sun newspaper and asked a very simple question "Is There a Santa Claus?"

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One cold evening in 1897, Dr. Philip O’Hanlon was asked by his then eight-year-old daughter, Virginia, if Santa Claus really existed. Virginia had begun to doubt whether there was a Santa Claus, reaching an age of reason and because her friends had began to tell her that he didn't exist.

Her father's answer? Dr. O'Hanlon skirted the issue and suggested that she write to and ask the New York Sun, the prominent New York City newspaper (at that time). How's that for passing-the-buck?

Thus, Francis Pharcellus Church, one of the paper’s editors, was given the opportunity to write the most famous essay on the subject and the true answer to that not-so-simple question. A true classic of American literature. Thank you, Mr. Church.

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Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus
By Francis P. Church. An Editorial in the New York Sun, September 21, 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 eight 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 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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