Yes, Virginia

Yes, Virginia is a 2008 CGI animated Christmas special, telling the story of a young girl name Virginia O'Hanlon(voiced by Bea Miller), who is based off of the real life story about a girl of the same name.

## History

Macy's, in partnership with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, launched its first Believe campaign in 2008, based on "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus". The 2008 Believe campaign results included Macy's collecting 1.1 million letters from Santa Mail Red Letter boxes located in Macy's stores, that were then mailed to him through the United States Post Office "Operation Santa", and Macy's making a matching $1 million US contribution to the Make-A-Wish Foundation for the letters collected by Macy's.

The 2008 Macy's Believe holiday commercial featured Jessica Simpson, Donald Trump, Martha Stewart and others quoting various popular lines from "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus." The opening lines appeared again in the 2009 Believe holiday commercial featuring Queen Latifah. In 2009, Macy's added a "Believe Meter", which consists of letters collected starting at "Imagine" to "Wish" to "Dream" all the way to "Believe", to keep track of how many letters were collected so far.

In 2009, Macy's and Macy's ad agency JWT produced *Yes, Virginia*, a CGI animated Christmas special, after pitching and selling the idea to CBS. *Yes, Virginia* is a fictionalized version of her story. The film was directed by Pete Circuitt and animated by Starz Animation, makers of Shane Acker's *9*. It features the voice talents of Beatrice Miller as Virginia, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Neil Patrick Harris and Alfred Molina.

The 2009 holiday season impacts from the "Yes, Virginia" special broadcast on the CBStelevision network on December 11, 2009, were: 1) "Yes, Virginia" reached more than 3.7 million television viewers, 2) the associated public relations effort resulted in a substantial lift in overall exposure during Macy's most critical season with 1.84 billion impressions generated, 3) On the night of the show on December 11, 2009, "Yes, Virginia" was Google's No. 1 and No.4 hottest search terms, 4) "Yes, Virginia" made TV Guide's coveted Hot List. *USA Today* said, "Like Santa himself, Virginia should be a welcome Christmas visitor for years to come." Parents Television Council named it the Best TV Show of the Week, and 5) Holiday sales for the five-week period ending January 2, 2010, achieved Macy's sales goals: $4.4 billion US in sales, 1% growth in same-store sales, and 29% growth of Macys.com. CBS served as the U.S. TV network broadcaster of *Yes, Virginia* from 2009 through 2014; beginning in 2015, it will move to ABC.

For the Macy's 2010 Believe campaign, an animated character based on Virginia was part of and appeared in their 2010 holiday commercials, inviting children to stores to write "Yes Virginia Santa Letters," and at the Macy's department store on 34th and Broadway in Manhattan as the theme for its 2010 holiday windows. She was also represented as a balloon in the 2010 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

A 2012 recording by the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra and conductor John Morris Russell, entitled *Home for the Holidays,* features a dramatic reading of Virginia O'Hanlon's letter and Church's editorial response, with voice over performances by Alma Russell (the conductor's daughter) and well-known Broadway veteran Brian Stokes Mitchell. The narration is underscored by the orchestra performing Edward Elgar's "Nimrod" from *Enigma Variations.*

*Yes, Virginia* is the name of a Dresden Dolls album, followed by *No, Virginia*. The phrase is also mentioned in a song off the former album, "Mrs. O."

Yes, Virginia is a spoken word piece included on the second disc of the special edition of *Snow Globe*, a studio album by English synthpop duo Erasure, published in late 2013.