Letter from Father Christmas for kids...

Lexis200

I'm not sure if this is the right place for this, but I'm sure I'll be shunted off if it's not

I've got 2 little boys and have several friends with kiddies of the same ages (3ish to 5ish), and at Christmas I send all of them a letter from Father Christmas.

I love the idea of them getting a letter from 'him' but I'm not willing to pay at least a fiver for a generic letter with just the name changed, so, I ask anyone who wants one to email me with 3 or 4 things the children have done through the year and put it into my own letter. All the letters have the same format (although I do fiddle with it so it's not the same every year) but I change bits here and there so that it's completely personal to the child in question. They absolutely love it as Father Christmas really knows what they've been doing, and they get even more excited about Christmas coming (coz we all know they need to be made more excitable at this time of year )

I happen to make handmade cards so I have lots of nice paper lying around which I use, and then print on to it a picture of Father Christmas with his reindeer that I found on the web, but you can obviously use any paper handy as it'll still look great.

The only thing is that some of the paid for letters will have a Lapland postmark which obviously these don't, but so far I've not had any of the children notice this terrible omission!

If anyone fancies having a go I have a template which I use as a basis and I'd be happy to mail it to anyone who would like it.

Also, if you wanted to make this into a shop but don't drop, a good place for fancy paper (Double-sided Irridescent Tinted White is lovely) is http://www.pdacardandcraft.co.uk, and it's always gone down well when I've added a bit of card confetti in the letters and stamped the envelopes with child friendly Christmassy images.

Hope this is of use to someone!

Feisty_Fairy

Great one Lexis200!

Thanks my boys will be well pleased!

mummysaver

This sound really nice, great to personalise one to each child.

I'm more of the write one to Santa and pop it in the post box type of person, the Post Office have a department/person who deals with all these and my children have always received a reply back, don't even need to put a stamp on the envelope! Certainly wouldn't pay £5.00 per child - sounds a bit of a rip off to me!

Perhaps this year I'll manage to get creative, I quite fancy irridescent paper! But it sets a high standard for next year!

Lugh_Chronain

Lovely idea Lexis200, but you’ve no need to spend £5 for a generic letter. You could write to Santa for free courtesy of Royal Mail. Well it’s not exactly free as such coz you will need a 1st or 2nd class stamp addressed to:

Santa
Reindeerland
SAN TA1

This was posted in the freebies section and was also posted there last year too. The last posting day for letters to Santa is Wednesday 14th December - you can post them in any normal post box.

Lexis200

Hi,

I did know about the ones you can do to the Royal Mail, but again it's really only going to be 'dear x i know you would like x and I'll be there on Christmas Eve'. That is still lovely for them to get, but still pretty nothingy when it only takes 15mins to make a completely personal one which makes them think FC really has been watching over them, (plus it probably takes more time and effort to get down to the postbox in the rain etc - all I do is stick them on the doormat with a fake stamp )

Thanks for letting me know though

Lugh_Chronain

I didn’t know that the Royal Mail Santa Letter was as brief as I’ve not got any children myself, although, I did send this info along with other similar stuff to my sister for her kids but I have not seen it yet.

dobbiesloan

Sorry I’m confused. What exactly is the freebie that is being offered here? Is it if we send you details you will send our kids a letter? Will you send them a handmade card?
Only link I can see is to a fancy paper site and I can’t find any freebees there.

garron

Great find lexis :T

Lexis200

Hi Dobbiesloan

Sorry for being confusing:) No, I'm not offering to send a letter, I was simply saying I do this for mine and a few other kiddies and it's a nice little thing for them to get. Just as an alternative to either paying for one or sending off to Royal Mail.

I am quite happy to email the template I knocked up as a starting point so anyone can do it for their kids, and the link to the paper site was just in case anyone fancied using a special paper, but I did say then it becomes a 'shop but don't drop type' thing rather than something you can do for free yourself.

As Lugh_Chronain mentioned you can write to FC by actually posting a letter marked 'to Santa' etc, but I prefer to do something a bit more personal, and give my little ones, and a few of my friends kids, a letter that makes them feel that FC actually knows what they've been up to.

There, clear as mud:D