Over a hundred years ago 'The Sun' was New York's greatest newspaper. It had at one time an editor called Francis Pharcellus Church. He edited the paper from 1890-1906.

In 1897 there was a large Irish population in New York and among them a little girl called Virginia O'Hanlon. She was eight years old and attended school and was heartbroken when her friends told her there was no Santa Claus. Her parents were distraught and told her to write to the Sun Newspaper. If the Sun newspaper said that Santa Claus existed then he most certainly did!

So Virginia wrote: 'Dear editor, I am eight years old and some of my 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?” From Virginia O'Hanlon, 115 West 95th Street, New York.'

And so the Editor Mr Church wrote back in his paper: 'Virginia your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the scepticism of a sceptical age.

They do not believe unless they can 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 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 it 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 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 we cannot see. Did you ever see fairies dance on the lawn? Of course not but that is no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You 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, or even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love and romance can push aside the curtain and view and picture the beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah yes Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding. No Santa Claus!!

Thank God he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, ten thousand years from now he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.' A Very Happy Christmas to you!!