Yes, INDEED, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus!

In 1897, eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the New York Sun, asking if there really was a Santa Claus. The GREAT response from newsman Francis Church has become history's most reprinted editorial:
"Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists 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!
There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment! The eternal light which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus! The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor adults can see. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world. Only faith, poetry, love, and romance can push aside the curtain and view the supernatural beauty and glory of the unseen world. 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, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood."

I truly love Santa Claus. I believed until I was about 12, and, with four younger sisters, there was ALWAYS one who still believed, so he never stopped coming to our house! When I had my children, I could not wait for them to know the magic of believing in Santa. I LOVE the thought of those Christmas mornings--the beaming faces of Allison and Zachary excited to go see what Santa had brought them and the squeals of delight as they discovered their treasures. Their happy little hearts and great big smiles literally brought tears to my eyes every single Christmas morning.
Those memories are without a doubt the most enjoyable and gratifying experiences that I have of their childhood. And my kids STILL talk about going to go see Santa, leaving him cookies and milk, how they loved being surprised and delighted and overjoyed on Christmas Day. They agree it was a joy to believe in Santa Claus...he made glad the heart of their childhood.
Here's hoping your heart is made glad today...
Merry Christmas