A Black & White Holiday Feature

As Christmas draws near each year, I find myself returning to a handful of stories that never lose their warmth — stories that remind us of who we were, who we are, and who we still hope to be. One of those is the classic newspaper reply known today simply as “Yes, Virginia.”

If you’ve ever paused during the holiday bustle and wondered where the magic of Christmas hides itself these days — haven’t we all felt that? — the history of this little letter has a way of lighting the lantern again. And like all good stories, there’s more to it than most folks remember.

Here is the story behind the story — the people, the newspaper, the unlikely pairing, and the words that continue to shine like a window candle more than a century later.

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YES, VIRGINIA — THERE IS A SANTA CLAUS . . . AND SO MUCH MORE
(Historical Commentary)

Most folks know the beloved line, “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus,” but not everyone remembers how it came to be — or the remarkable people behind it. And isn’t the story richer when we know the hearts involved?

It all began in 1897, when eight-year-old Laura Virginia O’Hanlon asked her father the troubling question: “Is there a Santa Claus?” Dr. Phillip O’Hanlon, a coroner’s assistant in Manhattan, told her to write to The New York Sun, reassuring her, “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.” Whether Virginia composed the letter entirely herself or had a little guidance is unclear, but the earnest question made its way to the newspaper office all the same.

The man tapped to answer it was Francis Pharcellus Church, a seasoned newspaperman who had once served as a Civil War correspondent — a role that left him cynical, bruised, and weary of sentiment. He reportedly wanted nothing to do with answering a child’s Christmas question and initially refused to attach his name to the response.

And yet, in what feels like a small Christmas miracle, he wrote something deeper and more luminous than anyone expected. Church didn’t simply confirm Santa Claus; he affirmed Hope, Love, Generosity, Faith, Devotion, and the unseen goodness that helps us make sense of the world. His editorial appeared seventh on the page — below an article on the new “chainless bicycle” — and still it shone like a lantern hung in a window. Readers noticed. Then cherished. Then carried it forward. Today it remains the most reprinted newspaper editorial in the English language.

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THE ORIGINAL 1897 LETTER & EDITORIAL RESPONSE

“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

“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:

“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 the strongest 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.”

Francis B. Church , Editor of the New York Sun , 1897

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WHAT BECAME OF VIRGINIA AND MR. CHURCH

Virginia grew up to become an educator and ultimately earned a doctorate from Fordham University in 1930. Her dissertation — “The Importance of Play” — foreshadowed messages Fred Rogers would later share with the world. She often said that Church’s letter helped shape her life for the better. She passed away in 1971 at eighty-one.

Francis Church lived only a few more years after writing the editorial. He had no children of his own and rests in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. Yet his one shining moment of unexpected hope continues to warm hearts more than a century later.

And isn’t that something? A little girl with a question… and a reluctant old editor who, for a brief moment, found the language of wonder once again.

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A FEW WARM THOUGHTS FOR THE SEASON

What would this world be without Santa Claus? Without Kindness, Hope, Faith, Generosity, Compassion, and the unseen magic that steadies the human heart?

Santa may arrive in different ways for each of us now, but the spirit he represents — that quiet, generous glow — remains as real as ever. As real as Love itself.

And yes indeed — he lives forever.

Thank you for sharing a little reading time with me today. May your home be warm, your heart light, and your December filled with gentle reminders that kindness still has the final say.

Wishing You Peace and Christmas Comfort,
— Jim  (and Red!)

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A LITTLE NEWSPAPER TEASE FOR THE NEW YEAR

And speaking of newspapers… a brand-new one is fluttering its wings in Honey Hill Country.

The Hearth & Holler Gazette — our weekly visit of tales, tidings, and old-time country comfort — is getting ready to debut soon after the New Year. If you enjoy stories like this and the warm glow of old-fashioned good news, I hope you’ll join us for the first issue in January.

Because maybe — just maybe — newspapers still have a little magic left in them too.

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Pen-and-ink illustrations created with the assistance of AI and lovingly styled for Little Red Bear Land.

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