Episode 508 || Yes, Virginia

From the Front Porch

The Bookshelf Thomasville

Arts:books, Arts, Books, Fiction, Society & Culture

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 19 December 2024

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week on From the Front Porch, Annie’s dad, Chris Butterworth, reads the New York Sun reporter Francis P. Church’s timeless response to eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon’s question: “Is there a Santa Claus?” Read the letter from 1897 and learn about its history here. From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in South Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf’s daily happenings on Instagram, Tiktok, and Facebook, and all the books from today’s episode can be purchased online through our store website, www.bookshelfthomasville.com. A full transcript of today’s episode can be found here. Special thanks to Dylan and his team at Studio D Podcast Production for sound and editing and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations. If you liked what you heard in today’s episode, tell us by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. You can also support us on Patreon, where you can access bonus content, monthly live Porch Visits with Annie, our monthly live Patreon Book Club with Bookshelf staffers, Conquer a Classic episodes with Hunter, and more. Just go to patreon.com/fromthefrontporch. We’re so grateful for you, and we look forward to meeting back here next week. Our Executive Producers are...Jennifer Bannerton, Stephanie Dean, Linda Lee Drozt, Ashley Ferrell, Susan Hulings, Wendi Jenkins, Martha, Nicole Marsee, Gene Queens, Cammy Tidwell, and Amanda Whigham.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to From the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business, and life in the South.
0:08.0	I'm in Jones, owner of the bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown
0:29.1	Thomasville, Georgia.
0:30.7	And this week, it's time for our annual reading of Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.
0:37.4	It's the busiest and brightest time of year at the
0:39.9	bookshelf, and for you too, I'm guessing, so I wanted to take a minute to slow down. For the past
0:45.8	few years, I've recorded my reading of Yes, Virginia, and perhaps unintentionally, it's become a
0:53.0	from the front porch annual tradition.
0:55.7	It just wouldn't be the Christmas season without it.
0:58.3	Here's a little background.
1:00.2	Francis P. Church's editorial, Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus, was an immediate sensation,
1:07.1	becoming one of the most famous editorials ever written.
1:10.0	It first appeared in the New York Sun in
1:13.0	1897 and was reprinted annually until 1949 when the newspaper went out of business.
1:20.9	36 years after her original letter was printed, Virginia O'Hanland recalled the events that prompted
1:27.4	her letter.
1:28.3	Quite naturally, she said, I believed in Santa Claus, for he had never disappointed me.
1:33.3	But when less fortunate little boys and girls said there wasn't any Santa Claus, I was filled
1:37.8	with doubts. I asked my father, and he was a little evasive on the subject. It was a habit
1:43.6	in our family that whenever any doubts came up as to how to pronounce a word
1:47.8	or some question of historical fact was in doubt,
1:50.9	we wrote to the question and answer column in the sun.
	...

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