Dear Virginia: The Answer is Yes!

A long time ago, in 1897, a man named Francis P. Church was in a fragile position. A little girl named Virginia had written into his paper, The Sun, earnestly seeking the truthful answer to a question which presses upon the mind of every honest little eight-year-old. Is Santa Claus real?

Mr. Church must have grappled with what to do, for everyone knows that little girls must grow up at some point. Should he really encourage her fantasies about things that don't exist, or should he welcome her to the real world and prepare her for the harsh realities she would have to face?

He made a choice that day, and that was to give Virginia the following answer:


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 nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be grown up's or children's are little.

Yes, Virgina, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give 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! The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor grown ups can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's not proof that they are not there.

You tear apart a baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest grown up that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view the beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else so 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.




May the spirit of Christmas flow into your lives!

Tiffany