Christmas
Meditation
As we dwell in the shadow of Christmas Day, let us share together that wonderful editorial that the spirit of Santa Claus is real:
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 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 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 there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
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. 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.
This editorial, which took an entire afternoon to compose, was written by Francis P. Church, an editor for The Sun, a New York City publication, and was printed on September 21, 1897. It was written in response to a letter penned by Virginia O’Hanlon. Virginia asked her father if there was a Santa Clause, and his well-known response was, “If you see it in The Sun it’s so.” So, the child wrote:
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 West Ninety-Fifth Street
One hundred and twenty-six years later, it is the most reprinted newspaper editorial in history, inspiring books, music, even an animated Macy’s TV special.
Virginia O’Hanlon grew up to become a New York City schoolteacher and principal. For 43 years she worked as an educator, retiring in 1959. O’Hanlon died in 1971.
As a single mother, she earned a master’s degree from Columbia University in 1912 as well as a doctoral degree in education from Fordham University in 1930. She wrote her dissertation on The Importance of Play.
In 1959, when asked whether she still believed in Santa Claus, the then-70-year-old O’Hanlon told a reporter:
Well, of course I do. Everybody wants to know – particularly at Christmastime – that there’s some kindly person interested in his well-being. It gives a glow to living. Whether it really is a person or a spirit doesn’t really matter very much – does it? Some people say we shouldn’t believe in things we can’t see. This is most unrealistic. Look at all the nice things that have happened to me because of Santa Claus.
Carrie Christoffersen is the executive director and curator of Newseum, a news and journalism museum located in Washington, D.C. Christoffersen shared the enduring quality of Church’s editorial with this portrait, saying that the editorial…
connects us to a time in the past, filling this nostalgic impulse that so many of us have for a simple time and a simple place, but it also captures what people want the holiday spirit to be. It has a little bit of magic in that it’s a true and honest question from a child that brings about a beautiful piece. It’s a heartfelt analysis that gives you permission to say, ‘Yes, there is a Santa Claus.’ Wouldn’t we all love to believe forever in Santa Claus and the kindness and generosity and joyful spirit that he puts out into the world?
Love is magic, and that is why love came down at Christmas. Inspirational words from a hymn written by Christina Rossetti, who resided in London, and was published in 1893:
Love came down at Christmas,
Love all lovely, love divine;
Love was born at Christmas,
Star and angels gave the sign.
Worship we the Godhead,
Love incarnate, love divine;
Worship we our Jesus:
But wherewith for sacred sign?
Love shall be our token,
Love shall be yours and love be mine,
Love to God and to all men,
Love for plea and gift and sign.