Dear Friends,
At this time of the year,
As Christmas approaches,
Many children and young people will turn to the adults in their lives and ask a reasonable question.
Is there a Santa Claus?
A one-word response is a very unsatisfactory reply to such an important question.
So where do you go to find a more meaningful answer?
Long,
Long ago,
In 1897,
A young girl named Virginia was seeking an answer to that same question.
She sent a letter to a New York paper at the time,
The Sun,
And the answer which she received has become one of the most famous newspaper articles ever written.
This question and the answer is worth repeating,
So I will read Virginia's letter and the answer which was published in the newspaper in reply.
Dear Editor,
I am eight years old.
Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
Papa says if you see it in the sun,
It is so.
This is the Editor's reply which was published in the paper.
Virginia,
Your little friends are wrong.
They have been affected by the scepticism of a sceptical age.
They do not believe except they see.
They can think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds.
All minds,
Virginia,
Whether they are young or old,
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 that 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 cordon 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.
Happy Christmas,
Everyone,
And may Santa come to each and every one this year.
Namaste.
