"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 would be 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 thing in the world are those that 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 as
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. "
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 would be 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 thing in the world are those that 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 as
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. "
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