This is my all-time favorite editorial. It’s always amazing to me how relevant it is still today even though it was written 110 years ago. That’s really incredible. I think it also says a lot about newspapers and newspaper editors. I just hope that newspapers are around in one form or another 110 years from now. I hate to think of a world without newspaprs and not just because I’m a newspaper editor. There’s so much that newspapers do for communities and I’m afraid people won’t really appreciate them til they’re gone. Well, here’s a very Merry Christmas to everyone who reads my blog and a special thanks to all those who take the time to post to my blog. May everyone find peace and happiness in the coming year ahead.
IS THERE A SANTA CLAUS?
We take pleasure in answering at once and thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:
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.
Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except (what) 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 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 life 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 may 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 supernatural 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.
Mark O'Keefe, executive editor of the Herald-Standard 
Dear Mr. O’Keefe,
With such an Irish sounding name, you should be one to question whether or not there are fairies running around in people’s yards.
Being a gay man, which is not easy in this little town, I am very much aware of that veil covering the unseen world, of which you speak.
There are no fairies dancing on the lawns of Uniontown for sure.
And, for sure, the poor fairies are getting no help from our local media.
But I do wish all the readers a very Merry Christmas and if you are so inclined, please read, “I Saw Daddy Kissing Santa Clause” by Jaxx Steele to learn more about how it is to be gay on Christmas.
Sincerely,
Tommy
Oh, Tommy,
You are my hero, as is Mr. O’Keefe, even if his Irish is showing. Before you, no one in our community has spoken up to even venture forth from our closed world in Uniontown. Now I feel like like the veil, that Mr. O’Keefe mentioned, has lifted, and just in time for the New Year.
We will have a new, accepting, president. The local Heraldstandard editor had acknowledged us. Who knows what may happen next. Perhaps Tommy, you and I will meet and even be allowed to marry on the steps of the Fayette County Courthouse. Haha, just kidding on that one, I mean, what is the likelyhood of us ever meeting. Hmmm, maybe pretty good actually. Our community here is pretty tight so perhaps we may even know each other already!
I feel so uplifted after reading what you, Tommy Wentworth, had to say and I just wanted to say a heartfelt, thank you.
Jay
Oh guys, this is like a miracle in the making. I can’t believe my eyes. Is this for real? Can this be happening in, of all places, Uniontown?
First Tommy, then Jay and now me! All of our voices are uniting as one and it can be heard loud and clear, “We Are Here, Here, Right In Uniontown. We Can No Longer Be Silenced. We Are In The Herald Standard Newspaper, Our Paper. Mr O’Keefe Has Allowed Us To Be Heard And Now We Will Not Be Quieted!!!”
No reason to keep typing that with capital letters, it makes my pinky hurt! I just want to finish by mentioning how proud I am today. Of us and of Mr. O’Keefe. Not too many on the other side will go out of their way for us.
It is indeed a joyous start to a New Year. Yeahhhhhh!!!!! (CAPS LOCK DEPRESSED FOR THIS ONE) —HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!! HAPPY NEW YEAR to each and every one of us and to our family at the Herald Standard!!!
How can someone take such a beautiful and historic letter from and to a CHILD and turn it into something perverted like gay rights?
Only in Fayette County.
Oh, and don’t get me wrong. I am all for gay and lesbians having the right to live with each other and marry or what ever, because if their are a bunch of guys living with each other faithfully that means there are more women for the straight guys.
The only thing that bothers me about “gay rights” is when a company allows gays to sign up thier unmarried significant others for health benefits, but won’t allow heterosexual couples to do the same.
Unmarried couples have been living in sin publicly longer than gay couples, so step back into the shadows with the other criminals until we get the right to protect our loved one with our health benefits.
Dear CJ,
Please let me be the first to say to you -Only in Fayette County is the squirrel’s food supply more abundant than the squirrels!
Just as the gist of the Sun’s response to little Virginia O’Hanlon is positive in today’s darkness, so is your thinking process the editorial’s antithesis!
I paraphrase the last paragraphs of the editorial…
“You may 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 straight man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest straight men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernatural beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, CJ, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.”
“No gay people! Thank goodness we live, and we live forever. A thousand years from now, CJ, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, we will continue to make glad the hearts of our fellow men.”