Letters To Santa ~ Early Literacy Activity.

Every year I help the children in my classroom write a letter to Santa.  It was an optional activity of course. Even though I am a scrooge when it comes to all things Santa, I don't feel the need to crush the imagination and wonder for the children in my life. Since we had a mixed grouping of children (ages 2.5 years to 5 years) we came up with an activity that was easily adapted for all the developmental levels in our room.  My team teachers and I would do a simple form letter with space to fill in the child's name, and room for them to write, or stick pictures of what they want to ask Santa to bring them.  Do this activity EARLY, we usually put it on the calendar for mid-November to allow sufficient time for the response letters to arrive.

Sample letter from How To Write A Letter To Santa.

What You Will Need:

letter templates, or plain 8 x 11 paper
safety scissors
craft glue stick
flyers/ads/catalogues
markers

Optional:
glitter, stickers

What We Do:

1. Print/photocopy/buy the letter templates, we chose one with lines for those that could write. And a blank template with Holiday border for those that would only be sticking pictures on their wish list. Some designs were also available at our local Dollar Store.
2. Let the children look through the catalogues and flyers and cut out the pictures they like.  
3. Glue the selected pictures to your page and/or write your wish list for Santa. 
4. Put them all in an envelope, write the address, and take a walk to the post box.  Our local Post Office even welcomed a brief field trip visit if we called ahead.

In Canada, you can send your letters to the address below. Volunteers will help Santa respond to each letter.  If we sent 24 letters from our child care center in one big envelope, I would include a self addressed envelope the same size.  Santa's helpers will send an individual letter to each child.

Santa Claus
North Pole, 
Canada - H0 H0 H0

This is a great activity for young children, the older ones quickly realized that there were only 2 different letters received from Santa's Canada Post Helpers.  If you don't want a generic form letter in response. I have posted links to sites that will help you get a more customized letter FROM Santa for your child/ren.

Sources & Links

Free Personalized Video Message from Santa:

Portable North Pole

FREE Santa Letter Template:
How To Write A Letter To Santa.

Letters FROM Santa
North Pole Postmark and Other Postmarks /quoted above.
Free Letters From Santa Claus.
Printable Santa Letters.