Dear Editor,
I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say that there is no
Santa Claus. Papa says "If you see it in the Sun, it is
so." Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?
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 our 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 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 that 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, or 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 supernatural beauty and glory beyond.
Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing
else as real and abiding.
No Santa Claus? Thank God he lives and he lives forever. A
thousand years from now, maybe 10 times 10,000 years from now, he
will continue to make glad the hearts of children.
Written by Francis P. Church in 1897