by Dale Dolmo

Created on: October 20, 2010   Last Updated: May 08, 2012

A Note from St. Nick: Writing Your Child's Personalized Letter from Santa
For many children, writing a letter to Santa is a yearly Christmas tradition. You can make the holiday even more memorable by putting on your Santa hat and writing them a letter in return. All it takes is some warmth, humor, common sense, and a heavy dose of Christmas cheer.

Festive Formatting

Something that looks like a business letter that Santa had his secretary type up is hardly going to fulfill the definition of a “personalized” letter from the Big Guy. Writing the letter by hand is probably better, as it's more personal, unless you're concerned that your kids will recognize your handwriting. In that case, there are a number of fonts to choose from in Word or OpenOffice that look “handwritten” and will add a warm, homey touch.

If you don't want to spring for specially-designed Christmas stationery, you can always use plain  printer paper decorated with Christmas stickers from the dollar store. Your own hand-drawn candy canes around the edge would make the letter even more meaningful – especially when your kids look back on these letters when they are older.

Claus-like Content
Kids may expect to see a response to the “wish list” they included in their letter to Santa. Don't make promises you can't keep, but hint that at least some of the things they asked for are likely to be under the tree. Of course, that's assuming they stay on the Nice list, and off of the Naughty one!

Speaking of nice-versus-naughty, resist the temptation to use Santa's letter to lecture your kids about some problem behaviors you'd like them to change. Remember,  Santa is a “jolly old elf,” not a  moral cop with a wagging finger. Everyone knows Santa Claus has the rule about being nice rather than naughty, but YOU the parent are the enforcer, not Santa. The tone of this letter should be joyful – even playful or funny – not nagging. If your letter contains as much “No, no, no” as “Ho-Ho-Ho,” you're doing it wrong!

Elfish Extras
A letter that mentions the child's Christmas list and reminds him or her to stay “nice” is pretty basic. Why not punch it up with “news” from the North Pole? You can focus exclusively on what's going on in Santa's workshop (elf shenanigans, the inner workings of the “factory”), or include all of the Claus inner circle (reindeer training, gossip from

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