"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." By Francis P. Church, first published in The New York Sun in 1897.
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| Francis P. Church |
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| Virginia O'Hanlon |
"Do you believe in fairies? If you believe, clap your hands!"
~ J.M. Barrie - Peter Pan
