{"id":72,"date":"2011-12-24T18:07:50","date_gmt":"2011-12-25T01:07:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/?p=72"},"modified":"2014-06-07T10:50:36","modified_gmt":"2014-06-07T17:50:36","slug":"there-ls-a-santa-claus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/?p=72","title":{"rendered":"‘Yes, Virginia\u2026 There ls A Santa Claus’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Click<\/a>A few days ago The Daily Herald received a letter asking an age-old question. Said the short missive:<\/p>\n

“Dear sir:
\n“Is there a Santa Claus? If there is, please write back.”<\/p>\n

The letter was signed by Steve, Donald, Kerrie and Cindy Ewell of American\u00a0Fork.<\/p>\n

More than 60 years ago a little girl\u00a0named Virginia O’Hanlon\u00a0asked the same question in a letter to the old New York Sun. Her letter offered the inspiration\u00a0for a famous column\u00a0by the late Francis P. Church of the Sun – a\u00a0column which dealt\u00a0with the spirit of St. Nicholas and has become a Christmas\u00a0classic as well as a masterpiece in American journalism.<\/p>\n

For Steve, Donald, Kerrie,\u00a0Cindy, and all others who ask the question, “Is there a Santa Claus?” the editor of The Daily Herald has decided to reprint herewith both Virginia O’Hanlon’s letter to the New York Sun and the published reply:<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

Dear Editor:
\nI\u00a0am eight years old. Some of my\u00a0little 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?
\nVirginia O’Hanlon<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

The Sun’s answer, contained in Francis P. Church’s column, follows:<\/p>\n

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been\u00a0affected by the skepticism of a skeptical\u00a0age. 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,\u00a0children’s, are little.\u00a0In\u00a0this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant in his intellect, as compared\u00a0with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth\u00a0and knowledge.<\/p>\n

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist,\u00a0and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! How dreary would be tin world if there\u00a0were no Santa Claus! it would be as dreary\u00a0as if there were no Virginias. There would he no childlike\u00a0faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should\u00a0have no enjoyment, except\u00a0in sense\u00a0and sight. The eternal\u00a0light with which childhood fills\u00a0the world would be extinguished.<\/p>\n

Not believe in Santa Claus!\u00a0You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men\u00a0to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch\u00a0Santa Claus, but even if they\u00a0did not see Santa Claus coming\u00a0down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus,\u00a0but that is no sign that there is no\u00a0Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those\u00a0that\u00a0neither children nor men\u00a0can see. Did you ever see fairies\u00a0dancing on\u00a0the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there.\u00a0Nobody can conceive or imagine\u00a0all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.<\/p>\n

You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes\u00a0the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen\u00a0world which not the\u00a0strongest men, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only\u00a0faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside\u00a0that curtain and view and picture the supernatural beauty\u00a0and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, in all this world there is\u00a0nothing else real and abiding.<\/p>\n

No Santa Claus! Thank God he lives and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousands\u00a0years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few days ago The Daily Herald received a letter asking an age-old question. Said the short missive: “Dear sir: “Is there a Santa Claus? If there is, please write back.” The letter was signed by Steve, Donald, Kerrie and Cindy Ewell of American\u00a0Fork. More than 60 years ago a little girl\u00a0named Virginia O’Hanlon\u00a0asked the… Continue reading ‘Yes, Virginia\u2026 There ls A Santa Claus’<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16,12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=72"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=72"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=72"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=72"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}