The toys that make up the Christmas wish list may have evolved over more than 140 years, but it seems that kids don’t change. This, at least, is the suggestion of a newly uncovered letter written to Father Christmas in 1883, believed to be one of the earliest known such messages in the UK.
The letter, addressed “Dear Santa Claus”, was written by a six-year-old girl named Janet and retains her distinctive spelling and capitalization. Demonstrating both a touching concern for her family members and a shrewd nose for publicity, Janet wrote, “Please bring a doll with a cradle for me, and a trumpet for Jimmy, and some other things for MA and PA.”
The letter was sent to the Leeds Mercury newspaper “in care of our column in the Supplement”, the newspaper reported on 22 December 1883. “The printer could easily have kept Jane’s note in better shape,” it continued, “but then it would have been his and not hers, and in that case it would not have reached Santa Claus, which it is now sure to do.
“No doubt Jane herself will put the paper where Santa Claus will see it. He’s coming.” A sentiment that will be heartening to the millions of kids who have carried on the tradition this year — even if Mega Evolution Elite Pokémon trading cards and the musical Wicked: For Good dolls are more suited to 2025.
The practice of sending letters to Santa, as is his now-superstar scarlet-clad status, appears to have developed in the United States, where as early as 1773 the fourth-century Saint Nicholas, later Sinterklaas, was celebrated as “Saint A. Claus” by Dutch residents in New York.
As the U.S. Postal Service became more formalized and efficient after the Civil War ended in 1865, the idea of writing a letter to a benefactor living at the North Pole gained popularity. In England, where a figure called Father Christmas emerged from medieval folklore to personify festive cheer, Santa Claus was first recorded in 1864, according to English Heritage. By the 1880s, the two figures merged into one.
Janet’s letter has been highlighted by the historical and genealogical research site Ancestry in its Newspapers.com database. Its researchers also found another letter, written by Mabel Hancock at the age of 11, which was published in the Hampshire Telegraph and Naval Chronicle on 24 December 1898.
“Dear Santa Claus, I’m writing you this letter to ask you not to forget to call us this year,” wrote Mabel, who has a similarly clear understanding of the model qualities that can help her get published. “I have a four-year-old little brother who will hang up his stocking; I’ll hang up mine too, but dear Santa Claus, if you don’t have much left, don’t put anything in my stocking.
“I want you to fill my brother’s belly with something nice, because I can just imagine how happy he would be, and mother tells me there is more happiness in making others happy than in making yourself happy,” continued the virtuous Miss Hancock. “I think the practice of self-sacrifice is one of the first things we children should learn.”
No doubt your own child has written something similar this year.
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