Case closed.
Posted on 12/11/2006 1:48:12 PM PST by ZULU
Eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York's Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history's most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps.
"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 [what] 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 measure by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists 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 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 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 man 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, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
Case closed.
Nothing beats John Updike's take on creepy Santa in a New Yorker magazine of several years ago. Tried to find it on the Net but no luck. Talks about hearing the Christmas tree slurping up water in the night. Totally hilarious.
One of my Christmas cards this year has Santa on the couch, saying that his obsessive-compulsive disorder has become worse: He's now checking his list three or four times.
That's an interesting idea! I could see that being as valuable a way of keeping the Christmas focus on something more meaningful as my family's tradition from my childhood.
Um... yeah... Santa Pants actually have become a family tradition. Everyone gets a pair of pants from Santa now. It's the only present labelled "from Santa" and usually the names are all misspelled. Heh. My brother always gets very angry.
Funny how every time Santa comes to our house, I manage not to be there. :)
I think I remember your Santa pants tradition from previous years :~) It has some quirky charm. :~)
Santa Baby...put some trousers under the tree for me...
it just don't have the same ring to it.
Finding out your parents were BSing you about Santa can be very traumatic to kids. Little kids tend to consider their parents to be nearly god-like in stature and power, finding out they were lying about something is a pretty heavy hit on the core concepts of reality for a kid like that.
I don't ever remember seriously believing in Santa, something about not having a chimney and having multiple relatives that worked in department stores and thus seeing multiple department store Santa on the same day caused my BS detector to tingle for what was probably the first time in my life. And my mom was never much of one to try to snow the kid under, she figured life was complicated enough without making her kid suspicious, so when I asked her about it she spieled on the spirit of giving and stuff like that, basically saying that no there was no Santa the person but Santa the concept was still good and important only with words a 4 year old could grasp.
If I had kids I'd be very vague on the Santa front, there are too many possible really bad repercussions to lying to kids about something when you know they'll see through it eventually.
It just really doesn't have to be that complicated. When questioned, I was told if I wanted presents I should believe - end of conversation. The trouble is all the overwrought explanations.
I guess it all depends on the kid, and the other sections of the child kid relationship. Some kids can handle finding out they were being lied to, some can't; some parents can manage to lie to their kids in a way that doesn't set the kid up for a major fall, some can't. If my mom ever tried to lay that kind of absolute on me there would have been open rebellion, I've never done well with ultimatums.
Jeepers, it's not an ultimatum, it's fun. Is there no such thing as a wink and a smile in your world?
My sister tod me there had to be a Santa Claus "cause Daddy cant afford all this stuff"
There's winks and smiles (and BTW that's the first time you've indicated there was even the slightest jest in it, we only know what you tell us here) but that's still an ultimatum, a rose by any other color as they say. A wink and a smile might turn it into a friendly or funny ultimatum, but it's still a "do this or else".
I assume Santa would spell his last name correctly.
:-)
You're right, I didn't say it was in fun... With Santa, I guess it just didn't occur to me that I had to clarify that. I have no overwrought childhood trauma associated with Santa Claus and the "truth".
Parents aren't always fun, I've known some seriously messed up parents in my time, caused me to forgive every annoying foible of my own.
Some kids have no problem with it, some do. Shouldn't get upset with people who had issues with learning the truth about Santa when they were little, can't really control what random thoughts ran through your head decades ago.
I'm not upset, I'm just trying to get a few of the overwrought to not pass on that personal flaw to their kids.
You got two choices in raising kids: pass on your personal flaws, or pass on random flaws. And the fun part is you never really know which is going to happen until they reach adulthood.
Carry on... :~)
How interesting. What was the price?
Ha Ha Ha! (or Ho Ho Ho)
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