I just discovered the movie Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus. the family drama based on a fictional story of the creation of this most reprinted of all newspaper editorials.
The New York Sun editorial, printed in 1897 by Francis Church, responds to a letter from an eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon asking if Santa Claus is real. The film presents social circumstances still present today—anger at immigrants., poverty and unemployment, the corruption of big money, women’s roles, and the sanitizing power of the press.
But the editorial’s message resonates still because it offers an understanding of belief and hope. After affirming Yes, There is a Santa Claus, the writer provides his logic:
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. . .
. . .there is a veil covering the unseen world which not even the strongest man . . . could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernatural beauty and glory beyond. . .
No Santa Claus? Thank God he lives and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, maybe 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the hearts of children.
Presence Versus Presents
The editorial captures the hope of this season. It is rooted in the lives and circumstances we all share. Hope “exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist and give to our life its highest beauty and joy. “
It is these diverse presences, not presents, that bring forth this season of gratitude and love.