What to Write in a Letter From Santa (With Examples)

After eleven thousand letters, we can tell you the moment a Santa letter succeeds. It is never the greeting and it is rarely the ending. It is the second or third line, where a child finds a detail that only Santa could know, and their whole face changes.

Start with the details only Santa would know

Their name is the entry, but the magic lives one layer deeper: the name of their friends, the way they learned to ride without training wheels in October, the little brother they were gentle with all year. One or two true details, placed naturally, do more than a page of generic words. 

Write about the moment of their year

Every child has one: the brave thing, the kind thing, the thing they worked at all year and finally did. A letter built around that single moment reads as though Santa was paying attention, because he was. It also gives the letter something to say beyond ho ho ho, which is where most letters don't compare.

Values, never toy lists

The classic mistake is letting Santa promise presents. It corners the person doing the shopping, and it teaches the wrong lesson about what the letter is for. Santa writes about who the child is becoming: their kindness, their courage, their curiosity. The presents handle themselves. A letter about character can be re-read in July without confusion, and that is the test of a keepsake.

Example lines you can borrow

• "I hear a great many things at the North Pole, and this year your name came up for the loveliest of reasons."
• "Do you remember the day you kept trying when it would have been easier to stop? I do. I wrote it down."
• "The elves ask about you, and I tell them how much you've grown this year."

Writing for more than one child

Siblings compare letters within the first minute, so identical wording with swapped names is a risk not worth taking. Each child needs their own details and their own moment. If the family would rather share one letter, write it to everyone honestly, with each name given its own line to shine.

If you would rather Santa did the writing

This is the craft we have built The Mailroom around. Our letters from Santa weave your child's name, their moment and the details of their year through Santa's own words, and you preview every line before it is made. If you have very specific wording in mind, our Write Your Own letter puts your words on Santa's paper instead.