By Mike Davis

BN Columnist

Howdy neighbor!

If you couldn’t tell already, I do a lot of reading in antique newspapers. It’s a big part of my job, and is the first resource I turn to for any local historical research; but it’s also something I do for fun most evenings — I know, what a sensation!

Well for me it truly is. I find historical events are at their most fascinating, when read from those newspapers in which they were first reported. There’s thrilling tales of war, disasters, triumph, great speeches from the leading minds of our nation’s past; but sometimes I find that big historical events in newspapers are overshadowed, when looking back from the vantage point afforded us in history, by curious items which are now of great cultural significance, yet which were in their day seemingly innocuous little pieces. Such is the case of one of my favorite editorials; an innocent, childish letter written to the editor of the New York Sun all the way back in September of 1897. Written by eight-year old Virginia O’Hanlon of 115 West Ninety-Fifth Street, she asks; “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?”

Now what would you do, dear readers of the Bridgton News, if you were asked this question? Perhaps some of you have already been asked this question, and perhaps some of you are yourselves wondering the answer at this very moment. Christmas is coming after all. Well for any still in doubt as to the reality of Santa Claus, luckily for you, here is your answer — and it is possibly the best answer to this daunting question which has ever been given. Written by veteran newspaper columnist Francis Pharcellus Church, in the 126 years since it first appeared in the New York Sun of September 21, 1897 the following letter, coming in at less than 500 words, has since become the most reprinted newspaper editorial in the history of the English speaking world. Furthermore, it has seen translation in over twenty other languages, and continues to be printed in newspapers the world over today, as well as appearing in countless books, movies, and even postage stamps. And it was in the issue of December 18, 1942, that it ran right here in The Bridgton News, as follows;

“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 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 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 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.”

From all of us here at The Bridgton News, and to all my friends out there in Bridgton, my colleagues at the Historical Society, my fellows down at Town Office, and to each and every one in this town who I am lucky enough to call neighbors; I sincerely hope that the warming spirit of the Christmas season so beautifully expressed in the above lines will find a special place in your heart and home this week. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas indeed.

Till next time!