Friday, December 21, 2012

Is Santa for Real?



Knowingly or unknowingly innocence gets killed in all of us. Somewhere deep down we regret that a lot. Remember the days when Santa Clause and Tooth Fairy were true and one of the much awaited visitors? As we grew up, these angelic characters faded away behind the curtains of so-called reality. Either we caught our parents secretly putting gifts for us tagging it with Santa’s signature or we got mocked down by our friends for believing in these fantasy creatures. Both ways, a little hope is us died and suddenly world became more ‘practical’. I don’t say that we shouldn’t face the reality and should always remain in a make believe world where everything is ideal, but I beg you to keep that child alive in you, the child that makes you believe in miracles. Because it is this child that will help you sail across the most troubled storms of your life.
Here’s an article I came across. It’s about an eight year old girl called Virginia, who was hell bent on keeping her Santa real, despite being teased by her friends. She didn’t want to give up on her belief in miracles. Somehow I could relate to it. I guess you might also spot a little part of you hidden in this article.
Back in 1897, New York’s newspaper, Sun, was the most credible source of information to people. It was believed that ‘It’s true if it’s in the Sun’. So, little Virginia sent a letter to the editor of Sun, asking him to clarify once and for all if Santa was for real. Here is her letter and what the editor Francis Pharcellus Church replied to her. Both of these letters went into print and became history’s most reprinted newspaper editorial.

Virginia’s letter:
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.
115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET

Response of the Editor:

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 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 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, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will 
continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
 ----
Merry Christmas friends
Don’t stop believing in miracles. There is a Santa who sees all the good and bad you do, and he rewards you with miracles when you need them the most.

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