'Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.'

WESTSIDE -- In this the electronic age, an age of iPads, laptops, compact discs and cell phones, it is easy to get lost in the hype that is Christmas in the 21st century.

But Christmas is not about lights or trees or gifts. It is about caring and giving, love for others and the birth of Christ.

In the 21st century we have lost that sense of innocence. We, as human beings, find it too easy to believe in only in what we can see, hear or touch. But just because we can not see things like the Easter bunny, tooth fairy, Santa, or even Christ does not mean they do not exist.

Believing in things that exist in stories that have been passed down through the generations is what helps to fuel our imaginations and gives us hope.

One of the greatest and most widely published editorials comes from a little girl who wrote a letter to the editor of the New York Sun newspaper more than 100 years ago. It first appeared Sept. 21, 1897. The response from the editorial staff of the Sun was hastily written and anonymous at the time of publication. Shortly thereafter the author was identified as veteran newspaperman Francis Parcellus Church. Here is the Christmas editorial: "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus."

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 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 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 there 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 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, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

- See more at: http://www.newseum.org/exhibits/online/yes-virginia/#sthash.rx7zcEBo.dpuf

Believe!

General News on 12/23/2015