Every year, the Sentinel republishes the timeless story behind the most famous letter to the editor and editorial ever written.
By now, the backstory is well known. It starts with a curious little girl, eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon, who wanted to settle a dispute with her classmates over whether Santa Claus really existed. She raised the question with her father, a physician, who encouraged her to send her query to his favorite newspaper, the New York Sun — though he warned her that it might never be answered.
It almost wasn’t. Frank Pharcellus Church, a former war correspondent, was working as an editorial writer (and moonlighting as an advice columnist) at the Sun. He was handed Virginia’s letter by his editor-in-chief Edward Page Mitchell, with the suggestion he write an interesting reply. Church was reluctant, Mitchell later said, but complied — dashing off a 419-word response that was printed, along with the original letter, on Sept. 21, 1897. Nobody expected it to lodge in the public’s memory; in fact, the Sun didn’t bother to reprint it for five years, finally giving in to reader demand.
Virginia O’Hanlon’s letter to the New York Sun, written when she was 8, sparked the editorial “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.”
– Original Credit: Courtesy photo
Virginia grew up, as little girls do, earning a Ph. D. and eventually becoming a school principal. But throughout her life, she understood full well how much her innocent question and its stirring answer meant to people — as she recounted to a Sun reporter in 1914, who visited her on Christmas Eve while her own daughter was just nine months old. According to that story, the baby picked that moment to say her very first word, “Tan-taw,” which is pretty easily translated. Just as Church did 17 years prior, the reporter swore that “not a single, shadowy, fluffy little doubt must be entertained by anyone” that little Laura Virginia knew who she was talking about, even though her mother was able to present the reporter with a fairly comprehensive list of the gifts Santa was about to bring.
In a year where many Americans have been divided by strife and beset with doubts, it’s worth re-reading these words of simple faith that so deftly captured the magic of Christmas.
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, 115 W. 95th St.
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 comprehended 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 Virginias. There would be no childish faith then, or poetry, no romance, to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight.
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 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.
Screenshot
Virginia O’Hanlon reclaimed her note from The Sun, and kept it in a scrapbook. that was handed down from her family.. This image, from an episode of PBS’ Antiques Roadshow, featured her great-great-grandson who talked about bringing his ancestor’s album to show and tell at school.
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, not 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. 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 he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
The Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board offers its readers of all faith traditions the warmest tidings of the holiday season. The board consists of Executive Editor Roger Simmons, Opinion Editor Krys Fluker and Viewpoints Editor Jay Reddick. Contact us at insight@orlandosentinel.com.