Yes, Virginia There is a Santa Claus!

Picture Credit and the story about Virginia O'Hanlon, a little girl who wrote a Letter to the Editor of the New York Sun in 1897 asking if there was really a Santa Claus.

Editor Francis Church answered her letter, and his beautiful response was republished every Christmas until the paper went out of business. Telling this story every Christmas has become an American tradition because it helps people restore their shaken faith.

Virginia: 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

Francis Church: 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 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.

Here are some sites that tell about this correspondance:

Is There a Santa Claus? (Illustrated and set to music)

Christmas Poems and Stories (Many favorite stories and poems)

The National Christmas Center (Background about Virginia and Editor Francis Church)