What to write in a letter to Santa

The part most letters miss

Almost every letter to Santa is a list of wants. Encourage one line that is not: something they did this year, something they are looking forward to, or a question they actually want answered.

That line is the one worth keeping. Ten years from now the list will mean nothing and “I learned to swim and I did not even cry” will mean everything.

Help without taking it over

Let the spelling be wrong. Let the handwriting wander off the line. A letter that is visibly theirs is the point, and an adult tidying it up removes the only thing that made it worth writing.

If they are too young to write, let them dictate it and write exactly what they say, including the bits that do not make sense. Those are the good bits.

• ·Ask what they want to tell Santa before asking what they want
• ·Write their words, not a better version of their words
• ·Two or three wishes, not twenty — it makes the answer easier for everyone
• ·Let them draw on it, which counts as writing

What to do with it afterwards

Several postal services run a letters-to-Santa scheme with a published address and a cut-off date. They change year to year, so check the current one for your country rather than an address you saw on a card.

If you are not posting it, the fireplace, a window sill or a box under the tree all work, and all of them give the child a moment where the letter leaves their hands. Keep a photograph of it before it goes.

The question that comes next

Once a letter has been sent, most children ask whether Santa will write back. It is worth deciding your answer before they ask, because “maybe” tends to become a promise in a child’s memory.

Whatever comes back should mention one thing from their letter. That is what turns a reply into proof that it was read.

If they wrote to Santa and nothing came back

The postal schemes are generous but not reliable: cut-off dates pass, letters go in the wrong box, and some years nothing comes. To a child, a letter that goes quiet can feel as if it went nowhere. The thing they need to hear is not an excuse for the post; it is that the letter arrived and was read.

Say that plainly: “Your letter reached the North Pole.” If you want it on paper, North Pole Rescue’s no-reply dispatch is a Notice of Receipt and a short letter from Santa saying he read it himself, naming one thing from their letter — read, never promised. It does not say what happens on the night, because Santa never does.