'Yes Virginia There Is Still A Santa Claus

'Yes Virginia There Is Still A Santa Claus'

Preface / Introduction

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Table of Contents
1. 'Yes, Virginia there still is a Santa Claus', and he needs you more than ever before.
2. O Little Town... Christmas comes to Cambridge, Massachusetts, December 25, 2011. 12:54 a.m.
20 degrees Fahrenheit. Winds W-NW 8 miles per hour.
3. 'It's not beginning to look a lot like Christmas,' yet, but it IS time to start planning.


'Yes, Virginia there still is a Santa Claus', and he needs you
more than ever before.
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Author's program note: September 21, 1897, the editor of the New York Sun ran an unsigned
editorial in the form of a letter to the editor and that editor's response. The title of this article was
"Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus", and it long ago became the world's most reprinted article,
particularly at the Christmas season.
The 8-year girl who wrote the letter (and, yes, she was a real person) achieved by a simple question
an ineradicable place in history, a place any number of kings and queens, politicians and generals
might have envied. For the question was not glib... and neither was its response.
This response was written by veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church, and you can find the
complete text in any search engine; the message can be read profitably by all good people though
well over a century has passed since it was penned.
Its essential message is found in these lines: "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exits 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."
Here's how this all got started.
In 1897, Dr. Philip O'Hanlon, a coroner's assistant on Manhattan's Upper West Side, was asked by
his daughter Virginia (1889-1971) whether Santa Claus really existed. He paused for just a moment,
as if he were considering the matter for the first time. Then, he advised her to write to The Sun, a
prominent New York City newspaper. "If you see it in The Sun," he assured her, "it's so." Thus he
unwittingly provided Francis Pharcellus Church an opportunity to rise above the simple question and
address the philosophical issues behind it.
Church was a war correspondent during the American Civil War, the bloodiest war to date; one
which caused doubt, disillusion, despair. Many wrote off the noble experiment of the Great Republic
as a failure; hope was in short supply. Church was given a once- in-a-lifetime opportunity to combat
this negativity... to reassure his fellow countrymen and remind them of all the good things that they
had... if only they would scrutinize carefully, perceive what they saw, and remind themselves of the
verities on which the Great Republic was founded and which are available to every citizen. Santa
Claus became his apt metaphor.
Grand thoughts, fustian idiom.
Church was a mid-Victorian... which meant, by our leaner, sharper standards, that he was verbose,
his prose not merely purple, but cloying, lush, overwritten, prolix. His final paragraph makes all this
very clear:
"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 still continue to make glad the heart of
childhood." Today's readers grow quickly impatient , intolerant to exasperation, with such prose;
thus the baby is thrown out with the bath water; Church's important message torpedoed by his over
ripe words and the period style our 19th century ancestors found so arresting, dedicated as they were
to the bombastic, sonorous and grandiloquent. This will never do.
Thus since Church is no longer here to update his work, I appoint myself to do so, not to reinvent the
wheel but to show what an author of our time can do to keep his message relevant and evergreen,

http://www.LizsWorldprofit.com Copyright Elizabeth English - 2012 4 of 13


important, not dismissed as old hat, the histrionic rhetoric of the Gilded Age. I hope Church smiles
benignly on this attempt, for he was a man whose respect was worth having.
Virginia's letter to me, December 11, 2011.
Dear Dr. Lant,
I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, 'If you see it in Dr.
Lant's articles, it's so". Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?
Virginia O'Hanlon 115 West Ninety-Fifth St.
My response to Virginia, December 12, 2011.
Dear Virginia,
First of all let me thank you most sincerely for taking the time to write to me and for your confidence
in me and my articles. Smart readers like you, young and old, are what keeps me on my toes, and I
account you not only a reader, but a young friend.
I can tell you are troubled by what your friends are saying. That is understandable. Many people,
perhaps including some of your friends, go out of their way to hurt others by selfish, unconsidered,
and hurtful remarks. I can tell right away that you are not such a person, and that is good news
indeed and why I have answered you so promptly.
Being the smart and sensitive young lady you are, I know you are not only thoughtful about what
you say and how you say it, but take what people say, unless you are sure of them, with a grain of
salt; in other words you don't believe everything you hear and read... instead you use your own mind
to evaluate. That is always the best way and is what we like so much in our Great Republic, in other
words our citizens rely on their own judgement. As you will when you finish this letter and consider
what I have confided to you. Let's consider for a moment the people, and sadly there are many such,
children and adults, too, who tell everyone Santa Claus doesn't exist. They point to the turbulent
state of the world... wars in far away places we never heard of... people, good people too, without
shelter or food... all the people who are ill and have no money for treatment, including children your
age, even some in your very neighborhood. They say, and they are very loud about telling people
like you, that this is proof positive that there is not now nor has there ever been a person called
Santa Claus.
And now, as the friend you wrote to seeking truth and reassurance, I tell you that these people, each
and every one of them, are wrong, wrong, wrong. And now I tell you why... because Santa Claus is
the embodiment of every good thought, every good deed, every good wish and every good action no
matter by whom, where, or when. Santa Claus represents the sum total of everything good in this
often turbulent, unhappy, despairing world of ours. Santa Claus takes all good elements and puts
them to work combating the bad and working tirelessly for the good -- for the improvement of
human kind and everyone in it, even those poor souls who say he doesn't exist and won't help him in
his tireless ways.
I know, dear Virginia, that you want to help Santa Claus in his great and important work, because
you are a dear girl who cares for others and who wishes to help Santa do that, which is much more
than just delivering Christmas presents down chimneys and taking care of his flying reindeer.
You see, Virginia, Santa Claus represents the best in all of us, and he knows that working together
we make the world, every day, a better place, a place of good substance and good cheer for all.
Today, now that you are sure of the existence of Santa Claus and his good works, I urge you to join
his team. Do a little good today, Virginia, and not just at Christmas, but every day you want the



world to be better... and help the Jolly Old Elf for he relies so on sweet children like you... and even
"seen everything" commentators like me. We are all so grateful to you, Miss Virginia, and your kind
nature, which prompted your concern and letter.
Merry Christmas from me and from all of us at Worldprofit, where the Christmas spirit is not the
thing of a day, but of every day. It is my pleasure to thank you for giving me the much needed
opportunity to say so and to recommit my own energy and zeal... and may God and Santa Claus
bless you as you truly deserve.
**** What do you think? Let us know by posting your comments below.



O Little Town... Christmas comes to Cambridge,
Massachusetts, December 25, 2011. 12:54 a.m. 20 degrees
Fahrenheit. Winds W-NW 8 miles per hour.
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Author's program note. Before I left on my Christmas walk-about at not quite 1 a.m. Eastern today, I
turned on every light in my brilliantly lit house. On the lights in the hallway thereby exposing in
radiance the wistful picture of a young 18th century prince of the House of Brunswick-Luneberg.
Dead too soon, not even 20, he craves all the light I can give him, and that is much.
On the lights, all the lights in the Red Drawing Room, on the lights, all the lights in the Green Room,
on the lights, all the lights in the Blue Room from where I am writing you now, where the chandelier
throws out over 10,000 facets of light. So the seller told me; I have long since given up counting
them... but their colors entrance while its welcome heat warms me...
What kind of mania is this that demands every light lit, every treasure burnished, everything bold,
audacious, polished, warm and, to my uttermost ability, welcome?
Just this: It is Christmas Day, this very day, this day of days, to come but once and go... and I am
alive, ready, eager to take myself from here and see how this 2,011th Christmas is evolving from
my vantage point in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I command all this light, first, to celebrate the
advent of this day and its great meaning, that on this very day, over two thousand years ago the
Prince of Heaven was born, a boon to mankind, our sustaining hope unto the ages. And I want Him
to know that He is welcome here... and always has been, though often I did not know or show it...
And, too, there must be light, an explosion of light, to welcome me home, for I mean to go out and
see for myself how this Holy Night is faring and what my neighbors may be doing.
Red hat, white fur, my lassez passer.
This is my 63rd Christmas; the year when my many friends worldwide, of so many climes and
countries, offer their advice freely before I venture out into the dark and cold. "Bundle up," says
Mark Anderson. "Remember to cover your ears," proffers Dale Thomson. "Don't stay out too long,"
offers David Mobile. Such words, each one on any other day lese majeste', convey care and love...
and make me smile. A man like me knows well the warmth of such words and how to conjure them;
they cheer the heart such as no fire can. Age hath its wisdoms and privileges; no one knows that
better than I do, and I crave them as surely as air or sun; and get them, too.
And so I put on the foolish Santa hat I was given by a young friend who looked raffish when he
wore it, whereas I look just silly... but I know that wearing it out this night of all nights, will safely
mark me as harmless, eccentric, a man who has imbibed too much of the grape, erroneous
conclusions to be sure, but useful when a man leaves his cozy house at midnight, and warm bed, too,
to venture out into the piercing cold of a Bay State Christmas in pursuit of... but you must come out
of your snug world and along with me to see.
Presents for me...
In the lobby of my building where I am now, I think, the senior resident or close to it, I see two
boxes for me. These neat parcels, festooned by words like FedEx and UPS and the numeric
mysteries of their tracking systems, firmly establish me as a card-carrying person of the middle
classes and of means; poor people shop at stores and carry home their packages, often on buses and
late-running subways. Mine ascend by elevators and are given by delivery men, exceptionally polite



at this time of year, who say things like "Something else for you, Dr. Lant. Somebody loves you..."
But I have no time for such packages now... I have a mission.
Cold air, colder Puritan.
The cold of midnight is piercing but by no means the worst I have felt; the Internet weather report
(the only place I go for weather intelligence anymore) says the wind chill factor is 10 degrees
Fahrenheit. I feel superior to that, and further plunges, too. I am glad to take it, and to know I can
still take worse; more evidence of my evergreen condition; of increasing importance as I get older...
The Cambridge Common, where by ancient law and privilege I could graze my cows (should I get
some), is vacant tonight... but the statue of John Bridge continues its austere duty, scrutinizing the
lives of Cantabridgians, ensuring not that we are as worthy as he (for that is impossible) but that we
do not stray too far from his noble example.
Bridge was a Puritan, a man of God and God's affairs and ran these, no doubt to God's satisfaction,
for Bridge's all-worthy career prospered in mid-17th century Cambridge. Such men, the very fibre of
moral rectitude and self-assurance (my ancestors, too, for the nonce) made a point of destroying the
olde English Christmas of "God rest ye merry gentlemen." Bridge would no doubt have disapproved
the frivolity of my chapeau... and so I walked on, glad he was not coming to disdain my liberated
Christmas.
The artistry of ice.
Burdened by winter as I often am here, captive of the chill Atlantic and its perishing cold, I more
often avoid the ice than consider it. Tonight I rectified this error and stopped to scrutinize the
random beauty of ice, frigid patterns that turned yesterday's puddles into tonight's etched allure. It is
beautiful, the kind of sharp avant garde pattern in black and silver a stylish billionaire might use to
dazzle every penthouse guest; here this transient beauty goes unremarked by all but me.
There is livelier fare across the street, when seven squad cars spurt police, busily at work at the main
gate of Harvard College, just opened days ago from the thrall of the hapless revolutionaries who
Occupied Harvard, but not effectively or for very long. The police are out in force, a tow-truck at the
ready, a fellow human being in their arms, his Christmas and destiny to be paid out in hospital or jail
cell.
I look instead at the statue of Senator Charles Sumner (1811-1874), a man of such austerity and
respectability that when he escorted Mary Todd Lincoln there was no touch of scandal at all, though
he was reckoned the most handsome man at Harvard and in Civil War Washington. I often wonder
whether the burden of such rectitude made him happy. Certainly his statue does not show it. He was
cold in life, and perhaps the coldness of this statue is its truest aspect.
I prefer to spend my Christmas night with another Harvard man, the Reverend Phillips Brooks
(1835-1893). He is memorialized in Harvard Yard, but not in copper and stone. His is a memorial of
people, for the people who admired and loved him created in 1904 Phillips Brooks House
Association, a student-run, community-based non-profit public service organization whose mission
is the true meaning of this holiday, to give and give until it truly helps and makes a difference.
Brooks took the fine tune by organist Lewis Redner and graced it in 1868 with the words we know as
"O Little Town of Bethlehem" and whose words are my prayer for us all this day, and every day.
"O holy Child of Bethlehem Descend to us we pray... O come to us, abide with us Our Lord
Emmanuel."
(Concluded and sent to the world as the author's gift, 5:05 a.m., Christmas Day, 2011).



'It's not beginning to look a lot like Christmas,' yet, but it IS
time to start planning.
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Author's program note. I knew what the response would be when I played the classic "It's Beginning
To Look A Lot Like Christmas" yesterday for all the horrified folks in the Live Business Center, but
it was even better than I hoped for ... universal moans, groans, and expostulations that all meant,
"Dr. Lant, you can't be serious!" Nobody thanked me for my concern about making this year's
holiday season the smoothest ever because it would be the best planned ever.
I mean, you want to avoid the chaos and confusion that distinguished your efforts last year, right?
And you definitely want to avoid the acute Last-Minute- I-Tis that seems to occur every single year,
right? Well, I'm here in my role as Santa's Little Helper to make this dream come true.
"Are you sure you're not jumping the gun just a little?"
Unless you're a bona fide Christmas freak (and they do exist) you think of this most important
holiday of the year not with happy expectations but rather with dread and apprehension,
remembering what can go wrong because of all the things that have gone wrong in years past; some
of them certifiable doozies like the time you "forgot" to get that "little something" for your much
loved mother-in-law. That kind of faux pas can never occur if you follow the instructions I'm about
to give you. And that alone makes your attention now worth it.
1) Plan, don't just think about planning. Planning means just that. Sit down at your computer, open a
new file and brainstorm all the categories you must have and master to ensure the best possible
result. If your plan is complete and thorough and if you master it, you are going to have a superior
event. Guaranteed. Otherwise it'll be catch as catch can. That can be memorable, of course, but in all
the wrong ways.
2) Review what happened last year. Christmas is about traditions, but one tradition you want to
exclude is muddle. What really worked last year? What did people like... what did YOU like... and
what left a mess, even bad feelings? The earlier you walk through what happened, why it happened
and (where applicable) why it better not happen again, the better.
3) Select a tune that gets you in the Christmas mood, even when you most assuredly are not. I like
Der Bingle's version of "It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas" written by Meredith Wilson
in 1951. It works on even the most hardened Grinch. I know. I'm one.
4) Brainstorm all the people you want to gratify with a gift. Be expansive. The idea when
brainstorming is to jot down possibilities. Evaluation and exclusion are not part of this initial
process. Thinking broadly and without limits is.
5) Now prioritize. Who MUST get something (think mother-in-law) because the consequences of
not giving are too horrible to consider... and who would it be nice to give something, but not
necessary? Prioritizing is crucial... unless you have more money than God, although it's rumored
that even His pockets are not so deep as usual after our punk year.
Avoid the "January Hangover".
Many overly jolly holiday givers wake up in January owing a bundle that's sure to make all the
merry gentlemen dismay. Planning is crucial here.
6) Budget. First, estimate how much money you want to spend. Then look at last year's bills.



Scrutinize them closely. Was the amount you spent before easy to pay... or did it leave you broke,
under a pile of debt? There are two keys here:
First, determine your budget, then resolve this year not just to live within that budget, but to cover
most if not all of your expenses with cash on hand, not credit. What! You're thinking that's
positively un-American. You're right... paying up front for Christmas expenses IS un-American, and
that's a very good thing. This means determining how much you can afford to spend as determined
by how much you can put away prior to December 15, then saving and spending accordingly. This
will save you a lot of grief and lamentation in January.
Shop early.
Right now as I'm writing Christmas is still about 100 days away. No rush to shop, right? That
depends on whether you want distinctive gifts... or whether any old gift will do. For all that I'm a
Grinch of unmatched performance, I make it a point to give gifts of thoughtful consideration only.
No mere "gift" will do. For me, this means scouting the catalogs of the world's major auction houses,
places like Sotheby's, Christie's, Dorotheum, etc. I never have any trouble finding things of beauty
and rarity, even if sticker shock comes along with it, especially fine jewelry. Every auction house in
the world has special bijoux sales before Christmas with eye- popping bling. You'd be surprised at
the bargains available for the diamonds which are always a girl's best friend.
Important note: if you take advantage of this recommendation, remember that things you purchase at
such auctions may and very likely will need restoration and professional TLC before being given,
not to mention adequate time for packing and shipping. Make generous delivery estimates
accordingly.
Plan for the "little people."
My life works because of all the so-called "little people" who assist, help, organize and, I admit,
coddle me. It takes many such people providing a plethora of such services to make my life work.
All must be remembered at Christmas, but how to do it without breaking the bank?
With me, Trader Joe's is the answer; specifically their unmatched for the price liquor department. It
takes just one trip purchasing just two cases of fine wine and sherry to solve the problem. Then all I
have to do is write ("For Aime") on my business card and tape it on the bottle. Voila, I have a gift
that never fails to please, especially if they didn't expect to be remembered. And thus my status as a
"good fellow" is secured for another year and so is their good service on which I so rely.
Check your lights and ornaments well before you need them.
One of the season's habitual frustrations is ensuring you have all the lights and ornaments you need
before you have to have them. Finding out you don't have them is a major hassle in December; just a
minor glitch in September. Thus review what you've got early. Then shop online to order what you
need; you can do this any day of the year by searching on the item you want. That's the sensible,
inexpensive, cool, calm and collected way to do it.
Wither goest thou?
Are you traveling this year? Air fares are up which means planning is even more necessary. Here's
where the online discount travel services come in. The earlier you consult and use them, the better
the deals. Just remember, once you've booked these specials, there is always a penalty for change or
cancellation.
Now sit back and enjoy the holidays.
I have seen 64 Christmases so far, this year my 65th and it has long seemed to me that too many



people are too harassed to enjoy them. If you follow the directions in this article carefully and
thoroughly, you will savor and enjoy them, perhaps for the first time in years. And that may be the
biggest gift of all.



Resource
About the Author Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide
range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Services include home business
training, affiliate marketing training, earn-at-home programs, traffic tools, advertising, webcasting,
hosting, design, WordPress Blogs and more. Find out why Worldprofit is considered the # 1 online
Home Business Training program by getting a free Associate Membership today.
Republished with author's permission by Elizabeth English http://LizsWorldprofit.com.


'Yes Virginia There Is Still A Santa Claus

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