Opinion: Yes, Liana, Santa Clause is Real
- Liana Gonzalez-Blanco
- Dec 8, 2025
- 5 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
Yes, Liana, Santa Clause is Real By: Liana Gonzalez-Blanco December 8, 2025 I can still picture myself in 1975, just five years old, standing along Duval Street with my family for the Christmas Day Parade. Even then, I must have had the instincts of an investigative reporter. I vividly recall spotting not one, but two Santa Clauses marching in the parade. The duplicity didn’t sit right with me. How could Santa possibly be in two places at once? To my young mind, it seemed like a scam, and I was determined to uncover the truth.
When I cornered my mother about the contradiction, she didn’t waver: “Yes, Liana, Santa Claus is real.” Even though a small part of me suspected otherwise, my love for Santa was stronger than my doubts. That moment—my first memory of faith and skepticism sparring—stayed with me.
Faith is believing in what you cannot prove; skepticism insists on proof before belief. Over the past fifty years, since that childhood memory, I’ve faced that same quiet fight more times than I can count. Each time I’ve chosen faith, and each time it has given my life a sense of meaning that pure doubt could never provide.
In September of 1897, The New York Sun published what would become the most famous Christmas editorial in American history. Eight‑year‑old Virginia O’Hanlon had written to the paper asking if Santa Claus was real, explaining that some of her friends doubted his existence. The question was passed to Francis Church, the paper’s lead editorial writer and a seasoned journalist. He had once reported on the Civil War. Though he reportedly complained about the assignment, Church quickly produced a 417‑word reply that is still relevant today.
His response assured Virginia that Santa Claus exists “as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist,” reminding readers that the most real things in life are often those unseen. First published anonymously, the editorial became history’s most reprinted newspaper piece. It's celebrated for its defense of faith, wonder, and childlike imagination against the skepticism of society.
With its famous opening line—“Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus”—Church’s words continue to inspire joy, hope, and kindness more than a century later. Each Christmas season, the letter is reprinted as a reminder of the true spirit of the holiday.
I’m sharing the two letters below, and I hope its message warms your heart like it does mine. Merry Christmas!
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
The New York Sun’s Reply
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 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.
Source
Church, Francis Pharcellus. “Is There a Santa Claus?” The Sun, 21 Sept. 1897, New York.
Liana Gonzalez-Blanco
Liana is a Key West native who loves writing about her island home. She taught English to students in grades 6–12 for nearly 35 years in Key West schools, sharing her love of literature and language with generations of local students. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Florida and a master’s degree in Educational Leadership from the University of Central Florida. Liana is the owner of Conch Media Group, LLC, and the creator and manager of The Key West Post. Her goal is to keep readers informed about the issues that matter most in Key West. As a lifelong local, she offers a perspective often missing from corporate media and from journalists and bloggers who are new to the island. When Liana isn't writing and managing this website, she enjoys spending time with her friends and family. On most days, you’ll find her walking, biking, or running outdoors, soaking up the natural beauty, friendly people, and diverse cultures that make Key West so special.
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