Episode 456 || Yes, Virginia
Merry Christmas, friends! Today on From the Front Porch, Annie reads the New York Sun reporter Francis P. Church’s timeless response to eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon’s question: “Is there a Santa Claus?” Read the letter from 1897 and learn about its history here.
We wish you and yours a peaceful and joyful holiday! Thank you for listening.
From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in South Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf’s daily happenings on Instagram at @bookshelftville, and all the books from today’s episode can be purchased online through our store website, www.bookshelfthomasville.com.
Special thanks to Dylan and his team at Studio D Podcast Production for sound and editing and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations.
This week, Annie is reading Faking Christmas by Kerry Winfrey.
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We’re so grateful for you, and we look forward to meeting back here next week.
Our Executive Producers are... Donna Hetchler, Cammy Tidwell, Chantalle C, Kate O’Connell, Nicole Marsee, Wendi Jenkins, Laurie Johnson and Kate Johnston Tucker.
Transcript:
Annie Jones [00:00:01] [squeaky porch swing] Welcome to From the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business and life in the South. [music plays out]
[as music fades out]
[00:00:24] I'm Annie Jones, owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia. And this week, it's time for our annual reading of "Yes, Virginia. There is a Santa Clause." It's the busiest and brightest time of year at The Bookshelf. And I'm guessing it's the case for you as well. So I wanted to take a minute and slow down. For the past couple of years, I have recorded my reading of Yes, Virginia, and without realizing it, I think it's become a From the Front Porch tradition. It just wouldn't be, to me, the Christmas season without it. So I hope you will grant me the opportunity to veer from our traditional format and to do a shorter episode this week as we prepare for the big day and the days to follow and share "Yes, Virginia" with you.
[00:01:18] If you are new around here or this is an unfamiliar story to you, Francis P Church's editorial, "Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus" was an immediate sensation upon its publication. It became one of the most famous editorials ever written. It first appeared in The New York Sun, a now defunct paper back in 1897, and it was reprinted annually there for, I think, almost a decade. And then 36 years after the letter was printed, Virginia O'Hanlon granted an interview and she recalled what prompted her letter. Like so many children before her, she believed in Santa Claus but she encountered kids at school, her neighbors, fellow children who maybe were not as want to belief as her. And so she went to her dad with her doubts, with her concerns, and her dad really didn't have an answer. He was a little bit evasive. And this is a quote from Virginia Hanlon. She said, "It was a habit in our family that whenever any doubts came up as to how to pronounce a word or some question of historical fact was in doubt, we wrote to the question and answer column in the Sun. Father would always say, 'If you see it in The Sun, it's so.' And that settled the matter."
[00:02:34] Which I just think is such a lovely tribute to a simpler time where we thought certain institutions were really trustworthy. And so Virginia sat down and wrote to her parents favorite newspaper, and the letter found its way to Frances Church, who was a veteran editor there. He was the son of a Baptist minister. He'd covered the Civil War for the New York Times. He'd worked at The Sun for 20 years. And often when controversial subjects would come to the editorial page, especially issues of theology, which I think is interesting, those assignments were usually given to Francis Church. So his answer to Virginia's very simple, sincere question became, in my mind, one of the most beautiful, true things I've ever read. I share this here every year because growing up, this editorial would appear in our local newspaper in the Tallahassee Democrat. This is a tradition I hope the Democrat has continued, but I don't know. I've not seen it. I'm not a subscriber to the Tallahassee Democrat, so I'm honestly not sure.
[00:03:40] But for me, it was part of my childhood. My dad would read this to us aloud for a couple of years. A few years maybe. And then as I got older, I would read the paper myself, and I always found Churches words immensely comforting. I hope you do, too. If you're interested in seeing the editorial in its entirety, in written form, you can find it on the Library of Congress website. There's a link in the show notes for you.
[00:04:15] "Dear editor, I am eight 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. "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 clause. 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 the world be if there were no Santa Clause? 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 Clause? You might as well not believe in fairies.
[00:05:44] You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus. But even if you 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 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, poetry, love, romance can push aside that curtain and view and picture the super beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Oh, 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-- nay, 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood." Francis B Church, editor of The New York Sun, 1897.
[00:07:17] This week, I'm reading Faking Christmas by Kerry Winfrey.
[00:07:20] Annie Jones: From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in Thomasville, Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf’s daily happenings on Instagram at @bookshelftville, and all the books from today’s episode can be purchased online through our store website: bookshelfthomasville.com A full transcript of today’s episode can be found at:
Special thanks to Studio D Podcast Production for production of From the Front Porch and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations.
Our Executive Producers of today’s episode are…
Cammy Tidwell, Chantalle Carl, Kate O'Connell, Kristin May, Linda Lee Drozt, Martha, Stacy Laue, Chanta Combs, Stephanie Dean, Ashley Ferrell
Executive Producers (Read Their Own Names): Nicole Marsee, Wendi Jenkins, Laurie Johnson, Susan Hulings
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