Several years ago in early December, my daughter called to warn me that her children had written letters to Santa and had been after her all day to address and send them. With the kids watching, hiding the letters away somewhere wasn’t an option. They had to go into the mail!

So she simply put Grandma’s address on the envelope and off went the letters. At that point, neither of us thought much more about it. But when the letters finally arrived, it seemed that after spending all this time writing their notes, the grandkids should get an answer from dear Mr. Claus.

And that’s how Grandma began her annual letters from Santa to all the grandkids.

It’s not really a very onerous task. If the kids send letters, then Santa Claus knows what they want and can compose a letter with those items in mind. Without letters, Santa may need to make a discreet call to Mom to find out what the little ones are wanting this year. This may be a good idea anyway, in case there is something on their lists that Mom is not planning on getting, probably for obvious reasons. A pony comes to mind immediately!

Once you have a handle on what is on their wish lists, start writing. You may want to inquire as to how everyone in the family is doing. After all, Santa loves everyone, not just the little ones and is concerned about their lives.

Of course, you’ll want to be sure and touch on the area of whether or not they’re being good little boys and girls. This Santa usually likes to let them know that he is assuming they’ll be good, just to encourage them a bit.

Since the main point of the letter is to talk about gifts, I always innumerate their wants and usually give some sort of positive thoughts that Santa will be doing his best to get those items for them. Surprises are often spoken about as well, especially in the context of their being extra good and earning extra goodies.

Towards the end, Santa usually mentions his reindeer and what they’ve been doing lately and also subtly suggests that the kids not forget how hungry poor Santa and his hardworking reindeer get on their all-night trip around the world.

Here are a few more easy things you’ll probably want to do as well:

1. Be sure to call them by name throughout the letter. They’ll be in awe that Santa seems to really know them.

2. Say little things that not everyone would know about the child or his parent (your child) such as: “When your Mommy was little, she always left a bologna sandwich for Santa.” When Mommy confesses that she did indeed leave a bologna sandwich for Santa, the kids will be thrilled that Santa remembered this.

3. If you’re doing your letter on a computer, add some graphics of Santa or other holiday pictures to brighten things up a bit. I also usually make the text red or green or a mixture of the two.

4. Don’t use the same letter for each child. Make them all unique, including the pictures you add.

5. If you’re writing your letters out by hand, get a red or green pen and write with that. You could also add stickers to liven things up.

6. Speaking of stickers, you may want to add a few in the envelope as a sort of pre-Christmas gift for the kids to use to decorate things themselves.

7. Even if you prepare your letters on the computer, be sure to sign them by hand and maybe add a silly smiley face or other little drawing.

Bottom line, just have fun with this and start a new family tradition in the process.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 1st, 2008 at 4:14 am.