In 1897, a little girl called Virginia, wrote to Francis Church of The New York Sun newspaper.

Here is a copy of her letter and the reply.

Dear Editor,

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have all been affected by the scepticism of a sceptical age. 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 minds, 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. And 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! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. 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 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 ever sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign at all that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in this world of ours are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing around on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there.

Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing more real and abiding. No Santa Claus? He lives, and he lives forever, thank God. A thousand years from now, nay ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.