CBS recently aired a new CGI cartoon called “Yes, Virginia”, which is a dramatization of the events surrounding a letter sent to the Sun, a New York newspaper, in September of 1897 by Virginia O’Hanlon, age 8. While I didn’t see it (because I mistakenly believed it was a theatrical movie having caught only some online ads), I did catch some clips online, and frankly I think I prefer the original cartoon. There seemed to be a lot more heart, and the celebrities were dropped in favor of actual children. That makes the kids sound like actual children. Bill Meléndez used the same gimmick for his more famous work, A Charlie Brown Christmas.
Sadly, the only way I could find this was in three parts on YouTube. (WordPress and Vodpod both refuse to play the embedded player that airs all three parts together, so I have to give them to you one at a time.) But I still tear up when I hear the reading of that letter, so I have to make sure everyone is exposed to this.
UPDATE:I had to go to Dailymotion since it seems to have disappeared from YouTube. Let’s see how long it lasts there.
Produced in 1974 (a year after I was born), I think it still stands up if only for the story. (Certainly not the closing theme, which doesn’t age quite as well.) While I don’t know if either cartoon (or the made for TV movie starring Richard Thomas–seriously, do you really need a movie-length time to tell this story?) is accurate to the actual events, I like this telling. Was the new version hosted by Santa Claus? I doubt it.
And that letter is true today as it was back then. Click that link to the Newseum posting of the article back in the first paragraph, and send the link to anyone who doubts what the secular portions of Christmas is all about. (I love everything about Christmas, from our Savior’s birth to the non-religious stuff.)
I hope to have something cool of my own creation posted Christmas night. If not, have a Merry Christmas, or whatever you’ll be doing on the 25th.
