September 21, 1897: "Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus"

Francis P. Church

September 21, 1897: The New York Sun newspaper prints an editorial, confirming to a local girl that Santa Claus exists.

In 1897, Philip O'Hanlon, a coroner's assistant, was asked by his 8-year-old daughter, Laura Virginia O'Hanlon, who went by her middle name, whether Santa Claus really existed. O'Hanlon suggested she write to The Sun. In her letter, Virginia wrote:

DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
Some of my little friends say there is n190o 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 O'Hanlon, age 8, 1897

The Sun's editor-in-chief, Edward Page Mitchell, received the letter, and gave it to Francis Pharcellus Church. Since 1878, Church had written many editorials for the paper, having previously written for several other publications. Mitchell reported that Church, who was initially reluctant to write a response, produced it "in a short time" during an afternoon.

As with the best-known description of Santa Claus to that point, Clement C. Moore's 1823 story A Visit from St. Nicholas, and with a prominent baseball poem of 1888, Ernest L. Thayer's Casey at the Bat, this editorial was published anonymously, and it would be years before its author was identified. In fact, Mitchell convinced Church to write it by saying that he would never reveal its author for as long as they both lived. Indeed, it wasn't until Church died in 1906 that Mitchell publicly identified him as the author.

On September 21, 1897, the editorial appeared in The Sun, preceded by Virginia's letter:

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.

Fred Astaire, in the 1979 film The Man in the Santa Claus Suit

The editorial proved so successful, and sold so many copies of The Sun that its publisher, Charles Dana, who described it as "real literature," ordered it reprinted in his paper every year. In 1950, the paper was absorbed by The World-Telegram. After The World Telegram & Sun folded in 1966, the New York Daily News began reprinting it every Christmas Eve, and still does.

The story of Virginia's letter and The Sun's response has been adapted into an NBC radio show in 1932, as a segment of the film The Santa Claus Story in 1945, an ABC special in 1974, a TV-movie starring Charles Bronson as Church in 1991, and a CBS animated special in 2009.

And what of Virginia? She grew up, and got degrees from 3 different New York City schools: A Bachelor of Arts from Hunter College in 1910, a Master of Education from Columbia University in 1912, and a Doctorate of Education from Fordham University in 1930.

Shortly after getting her master's, she married Edward Douglas, but he left her right before the birth of their daughter Laura. Still, for the rest of her life, she signed her name "Laura Virginia O'Hanlon Douglas." She taught in New York's public schools starting in 1912, became a junior principal in 1935, and retired in 1959. She always answered letters from people who wrote to her about how her 1897 letter and Church's response had affected them.

Laura Virginia O'Hanlon Douglas, 1970

She died on May 13, 1971, at age 81. Santa Claus? In the hearts of children, he still lives.

In a 2012 episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History, "Nice" Peter Shukoff played Santa Claus, with "Epic" Lloyd Ahlquist played 3 different elves, against rapper Snoop Dogg as Moses.

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September 21, 1897 was a Tuesday. These National League games were played that day:

* The New York Giants lost to the Baltimore Orioles, 10-3 at the 1890-1911 version of the Polo Grounds.

* A doubleheader was split at the South End Grounds in Boston. The Brooklyn Bridgegrooms (forerunners of the Dodgers) won the opener, 22-5. The Boston Beaneaters (forerunners of the Braves) won the nightcap, 9-1.

* The Washington Senators beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-4 at National League Park (later to be renamed Baker Bowl) in Philadelphia.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 11-3 at Exposition Park in Pittsburgh.

* The Cleveland Spiders beat the Chicago Colts (forerunners of the Cubs), 8-7 at the West Side Grounds in Chicago.

* And the Louisville Colonels and the St. Louis Browns (forerunners of the Cardinals) were not scheduled to play.