(EDITOR’S NOTE: The following editorial by the late Publisher/Editor Sammy J. Franklin has appeared in this newspaper in every Christmas issue for decades. Its original publication date is unknown but the message is timeless.)
One of my favorite articles at Christmas time is one written by the editor of The Sun newspaper way back in the year 1897 – more than one hundred years ago.
The Christmas classic was the letter from an 8-year-old girl inquiring if there really is a Santa Claus and the answer the wise editor penned those many years ago.
Following is a repeat of that favorite
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, is there a SANTA CLAUS?” Virginia O’Hanlon 115 West Ninety-Fifth Street VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. 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 grasping the whole 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 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 roof 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 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 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 he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10 thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
