This editorial first appeared in the Dec. 24, 2013 edition of the Prince George Citizen and it's become a bit of a local favourite for its twist on the famous "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" letter. Enjoy and Merry Christmas!
Dear Madam Publisher,
I am soon going to be 70 years old. Some of my senior friends say there is no Santa Claus.
It seems to me that still being a kid at heart and not real keen to "act my age" I think it is just fine to believe in all sorts of things. I don't have to be able to see something or have to touch it to think it could be real.
At the Festival of Trees this year I watched as people of all ages came in to that Christmas Wonderland. It wasn't just the children that had their eyes wide open and expressing all sorts of excitement.
I looked into the eyes of many of the older people and I could see the joy and memories flooding back with their recollections from many a past Christmas. It was a sight to see.
No, it is not only children but people of all ages who believe in things you cannot see or feel.
I say to my friends and family that if you see something printed in The Prince George Citizen, then it must be so!
So Madam, please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?
Thank you and Merry Christmas,
David Yarmish
Prince George
***
David, your senior friends are wrong. They have been affected by negative people living in a negative time. They have been influenced by people like my managing editor, who wrote a horrible editorial, The Problem With Santa. He's a journalist and you know what those people are like. They don't believe a thing unless it slaps them in the face and then they write to say they saw it coming. Negative minds are small minds that can't see the size of the whole universe and the big truths, the ones that are bigger than us and last forever.
Yes, David, there is a Santa Claus.
Even the saddest soul believes in love and giving and trust. Those are the things that make us all happy, that give our small lives meaning. How pathetic would our existence be, tiny creatures living on a pebble floating through the empty darkness of space, without those eternal truths. How pathetic our lives would be without Santa Claus. It would be as awful as if there were no one like you, with the heart to believe in what matters but also a curious mind eager to know the truth.
To not believe in Santa Claus is to not believe in the Easter Bunny.
We could ask all of the scientists at UNBC to investigate but even if they couldn't find Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny or any other miracle of childhood, it only proves they can't find them, not that they don't exist.
You are right, David, to recognize that the most real things in the world are the things we can't see or hear or touch or taste or smell but what we feel in our hearts. Those joyful moments we share with our friends and family create bonds that no force can ever tear apart. No scientific instruments or the words of know-it-all writers can measure or describe these things in all of their beauty and glory.
Yet they are real and are more real and lasting than anything else in all of the world. They are not bound by time or by space or by the limits of our tiny imaginations or by the negative people around us who would deny the very best part of what it is to be a human being.
We should be thankful to live in a world with Santa Claus. A thousand years from now, a thousand generations from now, he will still be bringing cheer to everyone, young and old.
Merry Christmas, David, and thank you for your letter.
Colleen Sparrow
