Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus

A few weeks ago, I was decorating the tree, with help of my youngest son, Nicholas, who is just about grasped the idea of Christmas.  Excitedly, Nicholas went on and on exclaiming,  "How happy Santa is going to be to see all this!"  It really is a joy to see little ones excited about Christmas.  You tend to take it for granted until you have older children who no longer believe.  I remember finding my mom's Santa's Christmas present stash tucked away in the closet under the stairs.  There it was, that Holly Hobbie doll, and that inflatable Barbie furniture I had circled in the Sears Christmas catalogue.  I was bummed.  Reality struck, and I closed the door of the closet very disappointed.  Santa Claus was not a jolly, white bearded man who rode a sleigh to my house every Christmas, but rather, it was my mom and dad who drove the green Nova Chevy.  What a let down!    Earlier last week, me and my son Andrew stopped at the Taco Bell after school.  "It kind of sucks that there isn't a Santa Claus, mom.."  I looked at him disapprovingly (I hate it when kids use the word "suck"), and told him that there was a Santa Claus, and reminded him of Saint Nicholas, the patron saint and protector of children. "But St. Nick is dead!" "The Christmas spirit never dies!"  I reminded him. I wish I could express the words written in the following letter. It just says it all, and I get teary eyed reading it.  Enjoy!  Article found @ http://www.kidsdomain.com/holiday/xmas/stories/yes.html Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus A famous letter from Virgina O'Hanlon to the editorial of The New York Sun, first printed in 1897. We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun: 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, isthere a Santa Claus? Virginia O'Hanlon

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 external 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 you 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 tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not thestrongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, 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 lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.