MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS

This 1889 Birth Certificate from the NYC Municipal Archives refers to a New Yorker whose name will be forever associated with Christmas.

Dear Editor:
I am eight 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 95th Street.

In the Sept. 21, 1897 edition of The Sun, Francis P. Church writes:

We take pleasure in answering at once and 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 [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 measured 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.

Francis Church

Francis Church’s editorial was an immediate sensation, and became one of the most famous editorials ever written. It was reprinted annually until 1949 when The Sun ceased publication. Church married shortly after the editorial appeared. He died in April, 1906, leaving no children.

Virginia O'Hanlon

Virginia O'Hanlon went on to graduate from Hunter College with a Bachelor of Arts degree. The following year she received her Master's from Columbia, and in 1912 she began teaching in the New York City school system, later becoming a principal. She retired as an educator after 47 years. Throughout her life, she received a steady stream of mail about her Santa Claus letter. To each reply she attached an attractive printed copy of the Church editorial. Virginia O'Hanlon Douglas died on May 13, 1971, at the age of 81, in a nursing home in Valatie, NY.

Brian G. Andersson
Commissioner
NYC Department of Records

www.NYC.GOV/Records