When I was a kid, I used to sit down with crayons and paper weeks before Christmas and create a hand–written letter to Santa.
I would sit for hours on end, explaining in my letter how good I was over the year. I included my wish list of toys that I had edited repeatedly throughout the year as every new toy came out.
Because I only received gifts on my list, I would constantly revise the list by taking out the older toys and replacing them with the newer ones.
After my letter and list were just right, I put them in an envelope and scribbled the address to the North Pole on it. Then I walked it to the mailbox at my house and carefully slid it inside.
That’s the way it used to be, but letters to Santa these days are not the same.
At all.
As times change, apparently so do traditions. The old-fashioned pen a paper letters are apparently a thing of the past. With new technology, children have found a new way to ensure that their letters reach Santa’s desk. Today, children are less likely to write them on paper. They e-mail them.
Just the other day my little sister Alexis was typing her Christmas list on our home computer. When I asked her why she didn’t write it out on paper instead, she replied, “Because if I e-mail it, I know Santa can read it, and that means he’ll get it faster.”
On one hand, I’m happy to see her using technology like that, and I suppose other kids are doing the same. Maybe they are even texting their wish lists to Santa with their Blackberries and iPhones.
On the other hand, I just wonder what Santa and his elves have to say about all of this.
My guess is they’d rather get those hand-written letters. Santa’s from a generation of adults who think spam is some kind of canned meat product. Senior citizens are sometimes iffy on their computer skills and might be more likely to prefer letters to e-mails. I hope some of his younger elves take the time out to read those e-mails, or else those computer savvy children will get missed this year.
Next time I’m on his lap, I’ll just have to ask him what he thinks of all this.