A little over a hundred years ago, a little girl from the upper westside wrote a letter to the editor of the New York Sun... one of the popular newspapers of the day. She wrote:

Dear Editor,

I am 8 years old. Some of my 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 95th Street
New York

(Her house is still there, by the way. I make sure to stop by and say, "Hi" every year.)

Anyway, imagine the dilemma. An 8 year old girl asks if there is a Santa Claus, but adds, "Please tell me the truth."

For a newspaper man named Frank Church, it was no dilemma at all. He answered her letter that year and printed it in the paper. This is taken from his answer and is what I read at the December 19th show for you guys. And, as far as I'm concerned, he told her the truth...

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except that which they see. They think nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, whether they be men's or children's, are little.

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 your life it's 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!?

Just because no one can see Santa Claus, that's no proof that he doesn't exist! The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. You tear apart the baby's rattle to see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which 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 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 ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Hey! People on the Hill! Let's enjoy the rest of 2002 and make it a wonderful 2003.

AHHHHH! And, go to the "Video Page" and check out "Twist and Shout". That'll make you smile!