Following up on my last Musings, presenting the collection of my favorite Christmas season songs, we turn to this historic holiday season message … which may or may not be familiar to you. To begin with, it was written and published long before any of us now living were around.
In September of 1897, the prominent and ground-breaking New York City newspaper, The Sun … which had begun publishing in 1833 … received a letter from a young lady, asking the question posed above. Today, more than a hundred years later, the response is still considered to be the most reprinted editorial to ever have appeared in any English language newspaper
The actual editorial was preceded by this statement: “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!”
The letter stated:
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 responding five-hundred-word editorial was written by a Sun editor, Francis Pharcellus Church … who it’s said — after having been a war correspondent during the American Civil War — was a hardened cynic who had little patience for superstitious beliefs, had no desire to write the editorial and, therefore, would not allow his name to be attached to it.
Over the past many years, I’ve come to enjoy and to include in my Christmas season programming on SiriusXM’s Escape channel and in earlier years when my programming was heard on FM stations across the nation, this slightly edited narration of the editorial by Australian singer Kamahl.
As I’ve written about before, when our Bonneville Broadcast Consultants radio programming and consultancy took on a client in Perth, Australia — station 6KY — we also took on an added commitment. Like Canada, the Australian government had instituted a requirement that all of the nation’s radio stations include a certain percentage of Australian artists and recordings in their musical programming.
In the mid-1970’s, there was an active musical recording industry in Australia, some independent labels along with branches of some of the international record companies. Beyond singer Olivia Newton-John, I would quickly learn of other Aussies who’s recordings would fit our needs … on the instrumental side, there were the Festival Strings, pianist Bruce Rowland and composer-conductor Brian May. Then I was introduced to one of Australia’s most popular vocalists of the day, Kamahl. This singer’s mellow voice and smooth style was a perfect fit for our Easy Listening genre of programming; hence, we began to include his recordings in our U. S. programming, not just the special segments we produced for 6KY.
As for the young letter writer, in her adult life Virginia O’Hanlon chose a career in education, first a teacher in the New York City school system, then as a principal until retiring in 1959.
Also, it appears the editorial has received more attention — via TV and radio documentaries and features as well as being reprinted in newspapers — since Virginia’s death in 1971 at age 81 than in all the prior years.
Now, what thoughts do you have? What about Santa Claus? Does he live? How can he be in so many different places at the same time?
Or, do you have a story which you believe my readers might enjoy? Let me hear from you!
Meanwhile …
