Yes, Virginia........

"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


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 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, 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

In 1897, Frank Church, an editorial writer for The New York Sun, wrote this response to a letter from a young reader. It became one of the most famous editorials in American history.

In 1897, Frank Church, an editorial writer for The New York Sun, wrote this response to a letter from a young reader. It became one of the most famous editorials in American history.

Christmas Eve Eve

What an adventure our Christmas Eve Eve trip to town was yesterday. We left the mountain about 3:30 and headed to town. As we left it was drizzling just a little. I didn't think anything about it because the weather was calling for sleet and freezing rain, but not until after about 8 PM. I figured we would be able to get back home before that started. After all they call the weather channel that we watch "Accu Weather". When we got to Chris and Melody's the only people home was Oop and Riley, everyone else was out doing their thing. One by one, everyone started coming in. When Melody came in she said the roads were a sheet of ice. I still wasn't real concerned about the roads figuring the salt trucks would have plenty of time to work their magic before it was time to head for home.


Tersie and her girls don't live far away, so they didn't have a lot of trouble getting there. Dinner was wonderful, as usual. Melody had prepared a traditional Christmas Dinner. The grandchildren opened their gifts from each other and it was soon time to call it a night and head back to the mountain ridge.


The roads were great all the way except for one exit lane that they forgot to salt. When J.D. applied his brakes we did a little bit of skidding. All in all the trip wasn't bad though. When we turned off of the State Route onto our road for the final leg of the trip, we started the upward and climb and started going sideways. Uhhhh Ohhhh, the county trucks hadn't made their trip up the mountain yet. Thank Heavens for the neighbor at the bottom of the mountain. He came out in his p.j. bottoms to direct J.D. backwards into his drive way. That backward journey of about 50 feet seemed to take forever. We chatted a while with the neighbor and learned that his son had been stuck on divide hill for nearly three hours. Tersie travels over divide hill every day going back and forth to work. The reason it is called "Divide Hill" is because one side of the hill will usually have rain, snow or ice while the other side is clear as a bell. Mr Legg said that there has been so many accidents on the hill due to the ice, that cars weren't able to go anywhere for the past three hours. Tersie must have just made it over before the sleet and freezing rain came.


J.D. and I ended up back tracking to a little village just south of where the kids live and spent the night in a motel. We awoke to rain and 44 degree temperatures this morning. It was quite an adventure and was so very good to get home. J.D. took a spill on the ice last night and then again this morning once we got home. I told him if he keeps that up he will be hobbling around like me before he knows it.

Alley Oop was sharing her My Space with me last night and she had the coolest little signature. I wrote down the info and told her I would have to be copying that one. How cool is this? Have a blessed Christmas Eve and be safe in all of your travels.

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