In the 1897 New York Sun editorial, what phrase says that Santa Claus exists?

The famous phrase is “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.”

The sentence comes from an 1897 editorial in The New York Sun responding to a letter from eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon. Her father suggested asking the newspaper whether Santa Claus existed. Editor Francis Pharcellus Church wrote that the visible world does not contain every important truth and argued that belief in Santa represents wonder, generosity, and imagination.

The editorial became one of the most widely reprinted newspaper pieces in the English-speaking world. Its opening sentence is now regularly quoted during the Christmas season.

The phrase is sometimes shortened to “Yes, Virginia,” but the full wording identifies the editorial’s central claim. The article did not present a geographical or historical proof of Santa; it offered a philosophical defense of the values represented by the Christmas figure.