St. Nicholas needs our attention
Local students keeping tradition of writing to Santa alive
Andrea Korotko doesn’t remember what she said in her letters to Santa Claus but she remembers writing one every year and encourages her children and students to do so.
“I think it’s important to keep the tradition alive,” said Korotko, a third-grade teacher at St. Mary Catholic School in Mount Clemens, while watching the boys and girls in her class pull out their paper and pencils.
Traditional lead pencils, that is.
No pens and no mechanical pencils for this old fashion exercise.
Once the children had their supplies their heads went down and all of the noise in the classroom subsided, except for a soft hum of words and wishes indicating that their young minds and imaginations were hard at work.
How many cookies have you eaten?
How many elves work for you at the North Pole?
Does Rudolph’s nose really light up?
My dad said you love sardines, is that really true?
Writing a letter to Santa isn’t just about asking for toys but communicating and learning things about the other person.
Lessons learned
Korotko said her students know about the history of St. Nicholas, a Saint whose acts of kindness and generosity who is believed to have inspired the beloved character with a snowy white beard and red suit known
as Santa Claus.
But a child’s understanding of a historical figure can grow with every letter written.
Born during the third century in a town along the Aegean Sea (in what was Greek and is now on the southern coast of Turkey), Nicholas was the child of wealthy parents who raised him to be a devout Christian. When they died in an epidemic, Nicholas followed their teachings by using his inheritance to help the needy, sick and poor.
Through the centuries stories about his good deeds have been shared and even repeated by others.
This led to the custom of children hanging stockings or putting out shoes, eagerly awaiting gifts from St. Nicholas.
Writing skills
Letters to Santa also provide children with an opportunity to practice writing skills such as structuring a sentence, grammar and punctuation or the fine art of writing in cursive, which also helps to improve fine motor skills and the thinking process.
However, it should also be fun.
“As an educator, it’s extremely hard to get authentic writing from our students. Most of our writing is structured the way the teacher believes it needs to be. This works just fine for some students, but other students struggle mightily with it,” said Darrin Winkler, a fourth-grade teacher at Pierce Elementary in Birmingham. “Kids then lose confidence in their writing, which leads to a negative outlook on writing throughout their school years.”
When writing letters to Santa, there’s nobody telling the child how the letter needs to be written or how it has to look.
There’s nobody telling them that their writing needs to be edited and revised, and then to write a final draft that has to be perfect.
“Their letter is 100% from the mind of a writer with no barriers, written directly from the heart,” Winkler said. “What’s more authentic than an 8 year old writing a letter to Santa talking about all the good things they did this past year, and then asking for a bunch of cool toys? And when they see that video game or doll they asked for in the letter, under the tree on Christmas morning, they’re going to feel pretty darn good about the letter they wrote. Heck, it might actually make them more excited about writing in school!”
Writing wishes
The students in Korotko’s class could no have been more excited about writing their letters to Santa Claus but also sharing stories about their pets, their families and Christmases of the past.
“I remember asking for a Holiday Barbie,” said Korotko. “They were about $50 at the time, so I was a little worried, but I got one.”
“I
didn’t ask for anything,” said Nolan Wolf, 9, who shared a story of the pet snake that he has at home.
Instead he asked Santa a few questions about himself, like how many elves does he have and how many cookies does he eat on Christmas Eve.
Like Wolf, Natalie Branan has a pet, but it’s a fish, and what she’s really hoping Santa Claus will bring this year is a golden retriever.
“I’m going to name her Penny,” Branan said, of the puppy she hopes to see under her tree.
“I asked Santa for a 3D pen,” said Sydney Tozzi, 9, after listening to Wolf’s story about his snake.
Victoria Holish, 10, asked for a bible and a metal statue of Jesus and Mary.
“I asked him for markers and monkey bars for my basement,” said Whitney Kalousdian, 10, pulling out a pack of colored pencils so the kids around her could decorate their letters including Lola Orlando, who said she’s hoping to get a craft kit so she can gift all of her friends with bracelets she made herself.
Jimmy McAndrews asked for world peace. He also tossed in a sentence about hoping that the reporter visiting his classroom would have a Merry Christmas, too.
As for Virginia?
Her letter is probably the most famous of them all.
In 1897, Virginia, who was likely around the age of Jimmy and his classmates, asked a trusted newspaper at the New York Sun about the existence of Santa Claus and an anonymous editor answered in a column that appears in the Library of Congress’ Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers and is reprinted by publications all over the world as a Christmas tradition including the Royal Oak Tribune.
“We run this unforgettable piece every year on our opinion page on Christmas Day as a reminder of the hope and spirit the embodies the season,” said Jeff Payne, Macomb Daily managing editor and MNG-Michigan regional news editor.
“When eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon sent a letter to the New York Sun asking, ‘Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus,’ the newspaper’s editor handed it to Francis Pharcellus Church, a sardonic Columbia College graduate and veteran Sun writer for reply,” according to the excerpt from the Library of Congress. “Church reportedly “bristled and pooh-poohed,” yet produced a masterpiece, under deadline, and in fewer than 500 words. Appearing in the Sun on September 21, 1897, “Is There a Santa Claus” is perhaps the most famous editorial ever written, translated into some 20 languages and even set to music. The press tracked Virginia until her retirement as a 70-yearold school teacher, while Church remained anonymous as the author until his 1906 death.”
Shared here is the exchange that was shared between Virginia and Church and a question that every generation has asked since:
Is There a Santa Claus?
We take pleasure in answering at once and thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of “The Sun”:
Dear Editor:
I am 8 years old.
Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
Papa says “If you see it in ‘The Sun’ it’s so.’
Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?
— Virginia O’Hanlon
Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except see. They think that nothing can be wich is not comprehendible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.
He exists as certain as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Santa Claus is busy at this time of year so most of the time children understand that they might not get a letter in return.
However, there are elves working around the country to help him out. The Letters to Santa program spearheaded by the Kiwanis Club of Utica-Shelby Township is one example of volunteers working to add a special touch to the holiday tradition that also fosters a sense of togetherness and community spirit.
During the holiday season children were invited to write their letters at the library or at home and then drop them off at the library, which served as a mail depot for letters to Santa.
The president of the Warren Kiwanis Club said the program has been around since 2017. In the last two years organizers added the mailboxes to the libraries in Shelby and Washington Township and then four more branches in Sterling Heights and Warren this year, handmade by students in the woodworking class at Shelby Junior High School and Celeste and Mike Ketzler and their staff at Utica Florist.