Virginia’s Secret Santa

Around the Christmas season, thousands of letters addressed to Santa Claus arrive at Post Offices around the world. If St. Nick were to actually read all the letters, the more vital job of delivering the gifts might get a little delayed.

This story is not about a letter to Santa Claus, but a letter about him. In 1897, an eight-year old girl called Virginia O’Hanlon, asked her father whether Santa Claus actually existed, or was a mere myth, as her friends said. Her father deftly suggested that she mail her question to “The Sun”, a noted New York newspaper of that age. Virginia took her father at his word, and addressed her question to the editor of “The Sun”.

Her question and the response, ran in the Sept. 21, 1897 edition of the paper. It has since become the most reprinted editorial in history. Here’s a brief excerpt from it:

“…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…Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. You may 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, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond.”

The un-named editor who wrote the reply was Francis Pharcellus Church, who was the lead editorial writer of the paper, owned by his brother. Francis Church had been a war correspondent during the Civil War, a time that brought about so much privation to the country, and resulted in much bitterness within the ‘United’ States.He could have easily chosen to ignore a child’s innocent question, or deflected it as her father had. Instead he chose to instill faith and trust in the unseen, and consequently the letter has struck a chord with the world’s adults. 

To read the complete editorial go to http://www.newseum.org/yesvirginia/