Dear Santa...
‘Tis the season to write a letter to Santa. MARION McMULLEN sorts through the festive post bags to read the missives of Christmas past
SANTA Claus is coming to town and he’s checking his list – twice – to find out who’s been naughty and nice. Letters addressed to Toyland, the North Pole, Fairyland and even Heaven have all been posted through the decades by children anxious to get their Christmas present lists to Santa Claus in time.
Prince George has followed the seasonal tradition and the Duke of Cambridge recently presented Father Christmas with his son’s festive wish list – at the top of which was a toy police car.
The second-in-line to the throne presented his son’s handwritten letter during a two-day trip to Finland and said to Father Christmas: “I’ve seen you and I had to give you this letter. He hasn’t written down many requests, so I think one request is probably ok.”
Santa scrutinised the form, which began with the printed words: “Dear Father Christmas this year I have been naughty/nice.”
George had circled ‘nice’ and written in large script “police car”. He also wrote his name at the bottom.
Proud dad William pointed to the word ‘nice’ and pleaded his four-year-old’s case, saying: “But he’s been a nice boy, a nice boy.”
Royal Mail has been lending a hand to get letters to Father Christmas for more than 50 years.
It was first appointed in 1963 to reply to letters addressed to the festive character and received more than 8,000 letters in the first year.
The venture was such a success that the Postmaster General of the time, Reginald Bevins, became known as Santa Bevins.
Father Christmas now has his own postal address at Santa’s Grotto, Reindeerland, XM4 5HQ, and Royal Mail deliver hundreds of thousands of letters to him every year.
Back in 1966, Father Christmas even turned up to help postal workers sort through the Christmas mail in London.
Around 100 letters a day for Santa were also redirected to the council offices in Swansea in 1985 and four years later Father Christmas’s helpers were working flat out at the Post Office replying to more than 13,000 letters to Santa from children across Wales sent to Cardiff Post Office Headquarters.
Royal Mail carried out a survey of children’s letters to Father Christmas this year to find out the most wanted presents on wish lists.
Lego retained the top spot from last year with bikes second, video games consoles third, Hatchimals fourth and scooters fifth.
Some children also included questions for Santa such as: “How is Mrs Claus doing?”
Alex McConnell, of Royal Mail, says: “We are proud that, for over 50 years, Santa has allowed us to help manage the thousands of special letters he receives from boys and girls across the UK.”
Back in 1928, youngsters were asking for snakes and ladders, books, fountain pens, clothes and chocolate.
Eight-year-old Kenneth McKay from Dundee was among those who wrote that Christmas saying: “Dear Santa Claus, I wish you a Merry Xmas and a happy new year.
“Please will you give me a flashlamp, a pencil box and a game of snakes and ladders and a cake of rubber and a pencil holder and please will you give me a ribbon for my cat and I would like you to give me an orange and an apple and when you come down our chimney you will find a cake on the table and a cup of tea for you.”
Of course, posting a letter to Santa via the chimney was the traditional way of sending Christmas gift lists in the days when every home had a fireplace.
One letter to Santa was discovered two years ago in a chimney by builder Lewis Shaw while he was demolishing a fireplace in a house in Reading.
It had been there for more than 60 years and had been written by a boy called David asking for “slippers and a box of chalks”.
Letters to Santa written by North Wales resident Christine Humphreys in the 1930s were discovered in her old playroom at Garthmyl Hall in Powys two years ago, by the new owners of the property. Christine was just five years old at the time and her list included crayons, a hymn book and some “nice toys”.
Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit writer JRR Tolkien famously wrote Christmas letters to his four young children from “near the North Pole” for more than 20 years.
The letters began in 1920 and came from Father Christmas, Ilbereth the Elf and sometimes the Polar Bear.
They included stories of life at the North Pole and his 1933 letter told of how Polar Bear had to save his presents from goblin thieves.
He also reminded them: “Don’t forget old Father Christmas, when you light your tree.”.