I'm working on some awesome santa letters that I'd love to share with you guys, but first, a little history behind the "Letters From Santa".
Santa used to send letters, not receive them. In the middle 1800's parents used the "letter from santa" as a tool to counsel kids on their behavior. For example, Fanny Longfellow (wife of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) wrote letters to her children every season, weighing in on their actions over the previous year ("I am sorry I sometimes hear you are not so kind to your little brother as i wish you were," she wrote to her son Charley on Christmas eve 1851).
Letter above is in Fanny Longfellow's handwriting signed by Santa Claus to Ernest Longfellow, 24 December 1851
Originally, kids didn't mail their letters to santa. Kids in the U.S. would leave them by the fireplace, where they were believed to turn into smoke and go up to santa. Scottish children would speed up the process by sticking their heads up the chimney and crying out their Christmas wishes. In Latin America, kids attached their missives to balloons, watching as their letters drifted into the sky.
It used to be illegal to answer them. Santas mail used to go to the Dead Letter Office, along with any other letters addressed to mythical or undeliverable addresses. Though many individuals offered to answer Santa's letters, they were technically not allowed to, since opening someone else's letters, even Dead Letters, was against the law. Things changed in 1913, when the Postmaster General made a permanent exception to the rules, allowing approved individuals and organizations to answer Santa's mail. The picture above, Unclaimed artifacts, including this silk pouch Christmas greeting, from the U.S. Postal Service's Dead Letter Office eventually found their way to the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum.
A cartoon helped kickstart the popularity of writing to Santa. If one work can be credited with helping kickstart the practice of sending letters to santa clause, it's Thomas Nast's illustration published in the December 1871 issue of Harper's Weekly. The image shows santa seated at his desk and processing his mail, sorting items into stacks labeled "Letters from Naughty Children's Parents" and "Letters from good children's parents." Reports Santa letters ending up at local post offices shot up the year after Nast's illustration appeared.
Newspapers used to answer them. Before the post office department changed it's rules to allow the release of Santa letters, local newpapers encouraged children to mail letters to them directly. In 1901, the Monroe City Democrat in Monroe City, Missouri, offered "two premiums" to the best letter. In 1922, the Daily Ardmoreite, in Ardmore, Oklahoma, offered prizes to the three best letters. The winning missives were published, often with the children's addresses and personal information included. This practice shifted as the post office took greater control over the processing of Santa letters.
The picture above, a group of people review letters sent to Santa for the Santa Claus Association at the Hotel Astor in New York City in 1914.
Pretty interesting historical facts about those letters from Santa if i might say so myself. I guess we learn something new everyday.
So here is the Santa letter that I finished last night. Might tweek a few things here or there.
Now I just need to make a nice list certificate and everything to go with it and then it'll be ready to sell.
The wording can be customizable if you want it to say something different, and the name of course. I don't have all that fancy technology they use now a days where you can customize it yourself online, so customizing will be done the old fashion way lol.
I'm also working on some elf printables for the Christmas elf. This elf keeps me busy lol. I can't wait till it's all done. If your looking for ideas or need props for your elf be sure to reach out to me. Everything should be typed up and finished by this weekend.
That's all for now! Thanks for reading and I can't wait to show you everything else once it's finished.
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