Letters from Santa are a highly coveted treasure for children everywhere, as they have been for generations. Fortunately, Santa has many places to turn for help, from DIY letters made by parents, to the very popular printable Letters from Santa (wink wink 🙂 ), to the deluxe mega-dollar Christmas Package that will set you back a weeks worth of groceries! It is interesting to take a moment and consider where it all began…
Good old Santa Claus has received countless adorable Dear Santa letters from children over the years – asking questions about his reindeer, inquiring about life at the North Pole, and making requests for the goodies they would like to see under the tree come Christmas morning! Even as an adult now, you probably remember writing to Santa when you were a young child. And if you are really lucky, you remember receiving a Letter from Santa in return!
The Letter to Santa Tradition
The tradition of Santa letter writing dates back a lot further than you might think! While not a lot is truly known about the tradition of writing letters to Santa, some say the practice has its roots in the 4th century, with St Nicholas himself! Much of our modern idea of Santa Letters, however, seems to have been initiated during the 19th century. It was at this time that the famous illustrator Thomas Nast created the now iconic cartoon that would become the basis for the modern day concept of Santa Claus. The rotund cheery white-bearded figure with rosy cheeks and twinkling eyes was captivating to children and this image of St. Nick hasn’t changed since.
Thomas Nast, Cartoonist – Santa for Harper’s Weekly circa 1881 (appx)
Where do Santa’s Letters go?
Interestingly, the US Postal Service has been routing and responding to those letters to Santa for over 100 years, officially since 1912! Letters that are addressed to Santa and bound for the North Pole can be “adopted” by anyone who would like to respond and the Postal Service facilitates more than five hundred thousand of these responses every year! Thousands of volunteers work with Post Offices around the country to respond to these letters from children of all ages.
A Letter for Père Noël
Fortunately, since 1914, the Santa Claus Museum in Santa Claus, Indiana has been helping Santa to relieve some of his letter writing workload. The museum has helped to respond to children’s letters for over 100 years. And in what has become a tradition we all enjoy, since the turn of the 20th century children have sent their Santa letters to newspapers where they have been reprinted in articles that bring tears to our eyes, lumps to our throats, and smiles to our hearts.
While the modern day image of Santa seems to be rooted in American media, the tradition of Santa is most certainly not. Children the world over write letters to Santa. Back in 2007, the postal service in France is said to have received the most letters for Santa (or Père NoĂ«l as he is known there), with 1,220,000 letters coming in from 126 countries! In that year they had to recruit extra staff to address a tremendous volume of mail that was coming from Russian children for Santa Claus. In Canada, the postal service has a special postal code for letters to Santa Claus – HOH OHO – and since 1982 over 13,000 Canadian postal workers have volunteered to write responses to those very special letters.
In Britain, it was traditional for some to burn the Christmas letters on the fire so that they would be magically transported by the wind to the North Pole. However, while some still do send their wishes to Santa this way, it has been found to sometimes be less efficient than using the regular postal service!
The Benefits of Letters from Santa
Writing a Letter to Santa
Children can be found laboring over their annual Letters to Santa, balancing manners and etiquette with their wishlists of gifts and promises of good behavior (or at the very least, to make a good effort 🙂 ). While this is most certainly, from a parents perspective, incredibly helpful insider information for those clandestine trips to the mall, in reality, writing letters to Santa Claus is truly a beneficial Christmas tradition for kids. It not only allows them to engage in the magical realm, where imagination and creativity thrive, it has a much more practical function.
Often a young child’s first experience with written correspondence, it promotes early literacy and provides practice with letter writing skills in general, such as sentence structure and use of greetings and addresses. And the best part is, they don’t even know they are learning – they are just so excited to do it. Let’s face it, it’s a little easier to get them to pen a Santa Letter than to send those Thank-You cards to Aunt Sue and Grandma Marge!
And of course that associated wait by the mailbox for the much anticipated Letter from Santa in reply is usually rewarded in spectacular fashion. After all, the adult equivalent might be a personalized letter from the President, Prince William, or perhaps the Dalai Lama himself!
Whether by magic, national mail service, or cyber-travel, the vitally important thing is that Santa gets his mail! And the only thing more important than that, is that little people everywhere get a Letter from Santa back!