Yes Virginia, There is a Christmas”

December 12, 2005

Dear Pastor Bill:

I am 8 years old. I am confused. The stores no longer display Christmas. They call it “holiday”, or something else.
Some of my little friends say there is no Christmas. Papa says "If you see it in "The E-Vangel" it's so."
Please tell me the truth, is there a really a Christmas?

Virginia O'Hanlon
115 West 95th Street

My Dearest Virginia,

Your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except what 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.

How futile it is that everyone wants to change “Christmas” to “Holiday”. Don’t they know that Holiday means “Holy Day”? Christmas is one of the Holiest Days of the year.

Yes, Virginia, there is Christmas. Christmas 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 Christmas! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, and 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.

From the very First Christmas, when God gave us the greatest Gift we shall ever receive, Christmas has been a time of great wonder, joy and love. The heavens filled with the songs of angels. And God chose to come to us as an innocent child, like you, Virginia. It is your childlike faith that will keep Christmas alive forevermore.

Not believe in Christmas! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the Nativity scenes on Christmas eve to see in baby Jesus the wonderful love of God, but even if they did not see, what would that prove? Even if nobody sees, that is no sign that there is no Christmas. 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.

If there is no Christmas, then why does everyone taking time off from work, visiting families and friends, and exchanging gifts? To be consistent, shouldn’t those who protest Christmas be at their jobs, slaving away while I get some wet kisses from my grandchildren on Christmas morning? Now if they would do that, I might believe they have integrity. But many will take leave the last two weeks of the year, which, without the Christmas they despise, they would not be able to do.

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, fancy, 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.

The reason there is no Nativity scene in our government this year is not because of separation of church and state, it’s because they cannot find “three wise men” in the whole city. Remember Virginia, “Wise Men still seek Him”.

No Christmas! Thank God He lives, and He lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, He will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

F. P. Church
New York Sun, September 21, 1897

(My thanks and apologies to Virginia O’Hanlon and F. P. Church)

May Christ be born in us this Christmas!