In 1897, newspaper magic happened. An eight-year-old girl, Virginia O’Hanlon, wrote a simple three-sentence letter to The New York Sun newspaper asking if Santa exists. Her father suggested she write: “Papa says, ‘If you see it in THE SUN it’s so.’” The power of the fourth estate. What transpired has become legend. The editor who wrote the response, Francis Pharcellus Church, who had been a war correspondent during the Civil War, used it as an opportunity to not just say whether Santa exists or not, but to highlight the importance of faith and believing in something larger than yourself.
It is difficult to imagine what Francis Church must have experienced as a war correspondent and how this affected him afterwards. The Civil War ravaged our country; more than 600,000 Americans died. It was, at times, brother fighting brother as our country tore itself apart. During the four-year conflict there was extreme suffering, and we can assume that Church saw this and that it left an imprint on him. At its conclusion, the South’s infrastructure was destroyed and the long, hard process of Reconstruction began. Many felt that society was broken as a result and that there was a collective loss of faith. When Virginia’s letter came in, Church must have jumped at the opportunity to craft such a brilliant reply—a reply asserting that if there were no Santa, “The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.”
Newspapers are an interesting thing. You have the opportunity to make an impact. Church’s editorial appeared on page seven of The Sun, below a piece on the “chainless bicycle.” You would not think it would have gotten much notice, but it did. It was read and the magic began. Today it is the most reproduced editorial, in part or whole, in the English language. It words and phrasing are both quick-paced and soothing. We like to imagine Church wrote it quickly, in a fit a passion. “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.”
We do not begin to believe our editorials are as impactful as Church’s most famous one. However, we do have faith. We have faith not just in our paper (and faith that you are reading the editorials), but in our community and our neighbors. We believe that Santa abounds in Greenwich in large ways and small. We saw it first hand when we witnessed the children from Christ Church Nursery School donating toys to Neighbor-to-Neighbor. Neighbor to Neighbor, in turn, held a holiday “toy store” where more than 200 Greenwich families were invited to “shop” for their children for the holidays at no cost. Thanks to the generosity of many civic groups, businesses and others these children will know a little holiday cheer.
At the heart of Church’s editorial is how can you believe in something, have faith in something that you cannot see and when others tell you it does not exist? To the doubters and naysayers, he responds, “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.”
As you gather this weekend with family and friends, as the race to the holidays concludes with the actual holiday itself, we hope that everyone will take a moment to avoid the “skepticism of a skeptical age” and look for what we, as a community, can hold up with pride as meaningful accomplishments. It could be the reimaging of the Greenwich Historical Society campus, to accommodate increasing visitation and needed exhibition space. A big thank you to the Malkin family and our community for supporting such an effort. Of it could be the ongoing efforts of the Greenwich International Film Festival to harness the power of film to serve the greater good by highlighting important issues that relate to basic human rights, education, the environment and healthcare
These efforts, and many others, took faith and belief and made it real.
Yes, there is a Santa Claus.
