晚上回家的路上，两个小孩一直在讨论圣诞老人是否实有其人，这个问题困惑着很多类似年龄的小孩，而这个困惑产生了一篇著名的评论员文章。

1897年，曼哈顿一个八岁的名叫弗吉尼亚（Virginia ，1889–1971)的小女孩跟她爸爸提出了圣诞老人是否存在的疑问。她爸爸说你不如写信问问纽约当时著名的《太阳报》问问去。该报的编辑弗兰西斯·丘吉（Francis Church）并没有小瞧这个小孩提出的问题，而是给出了认真的回答。

丘吉是美国内战期间的一位战地记者，亲眼目睹了生存的苦难，和人们希望与信心的幻灭。他于是写下了一篇评论员文章，题为《是的，弗吉尼亚，圣诞老人确有其人》。弗吉尼亚当时的那封短信，现在估价为20，000-30，000美元。此事还被改编为电影、戏剧，还有2009年CBS推出的一部动画片。而丘吉的回信，也成为英语文学中被重印最多的一篇评论员文章。

当时弗吉尼亚的读者来信：

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

丘吉的回复：

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.

参考资料：

维基百科Yes Virginia there is a Santa 条目