Every Christmas, once everyone is up, Christmas greetings were made, hugs were exchanged, the presents were opened, and breakfast was being made, I would read this first in the paper (ye olde parental units get an actual paper, and they live in NJ). It is a Christmas classic that has always touched my soul. While some people outside of the Tri-State area have heard of it, rarely do papers outside of the NY-NJ-Conn area see it in print, and I always direct them to read it online. I humbly bring it to you, and hope it touches you as much as it touches me:
Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus
Editorial Page, New York Sun, 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:
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 sceptical 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 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.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!!
And a Merry Christmas from deep down in my heart to all my friends and visitors out there.
If you would like to know the background on the letter, you can go to the 2004 posting of this.
Merry Christmas, Everyone!
Merry Christmas to you and your family as well, Teach!
Merry Christmas to all you guys, and happy festivus to you heathens too.
“If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.†and then they go on to lie to her. Typical news people. Lying about everything for decades.
That is the most devastating loss of our lifetime: the loss of Trust in all our “once trusted” institutions. From the media to federal law enforcement and from medicine to education we can’t trust ANYTHING. The halls of power are now controlled by lying, corrupt partisan hacks interested in only one thing: Power!
We can’t even trust the CDC who are still dispensing false Commie Flu numbers to elections brazenly stolen in broad daylight and the Supreme Court who refuses to even review the fraud.
You CHOSE to lose trust in our institutions to suit your own needs. Remember that our institutions are all staffed by humans and humans can make mistakes. Elections are never perfect, the FBI is not perfect, laws are never perfect, the media is not perfect, religions are not perfect, doctors are not perfect, the CDC is not perfect, even our Supreme Court is not perfect… but mistakes don’t invalidate the institutions.
No one has been able to demonstrate the election was stolen from the imperfect Trump, who appears to be in the middle of a mental breakdown. Trump is willing to destroy the nation enabling his escape in the chaos.
Commenters on right-wing blogs are now talking openly about traveling to DC in January to “interfere” with the Congressional approval (Jan 6) and inauguration (Jan 20), usually claiming it will be necessary to carry arms.
All this dangerous BS results from Donald Trump leading a cult, not a political movement.