I have fond memories of writing letters to Santa, first dictating it to my mom and after writing it myself. My favorite was in grade one when I wrote to Santa and Santa wrote back ! So in that spirit this acitivy is one where your child writes or dictates a letter and  you send it away to Santa . Ours was send via Grandma who has a “contact” at the north pole and will make sure that Santa’s letter to my son gets here!  I hope when it does my son’s wonder will be the same mine was so long ago .

1. Gather your materials. You will need some paper, a pencil or marker, some fun holiday stickers , an envelope , stamps and an eager child to write or dictate.
2. Explain to your child why and what you are doing, if your child is young like my 3 year old they may need some explanation. Encourage them to not only ask for things but to ask Santa questions and tell him about things they have been doing. We chatted while he ate lunch!
3. Start writing.
4. Have your child sign their name even if you did the writing.
5. Add stickers.
6. Label your envelope and add stamps.
7. Mail!
8. Don’t forget to watch the mail for Santa’s return letter!

Books

My Penguin Osbert by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel is a perfect book for this activity. In this story a little boy writes to Santa and asks for a very specific gift, a real live penguin! It’s not long before he realizes that a real live penguin is not as much fun as he thought it would be. He is very responsible though and sacrifices a lot for Osbert. He is thankful to Santa for getting his gift exactly right but writes a follow up letter explaining how it would be ok if Santa sent a replacement. Very cute story, it’s not short though but my 3 year old listened to it happily for a bedtime story. Laughing at the funny parts and pointing out that he wrote a letter to Santa too, but he didn’t ask for a penguin… thank goodness!

Inside, Outside Christmas by Robin Spowart is a great simple Christmas book for toddlers and preschoolers. The text is short, each set of pages has something we do during the holidays inside and one outside. The text has simple rhymes that my son liked and it isn’t  too short for preschoolers, the pictures led to questions and discussion and the end of the book has a holiday greeting for everyone!  Cute book to get young readers into the spirit of Christmas.