November 29, 2017: Del Rio News-Herald * Letter to the Editor * Writing a letter to Santa Claus

Letter to Santa - I mean Letter to the Editor,

Writing a Letter to Santa Claus

My name is Merry Navidad.

I must have been six or seven years old when my mother asked me what I wanted Santa Claus to bring me so that we could write him a letter to let him know what I wanted.

I was thrilled to make my wishes known so Santa would know exactly what I wanted and I wouldn’t be disappointed like I was when relatives gave me beautifully gift wrapped presents that I gleefully opened in anticipation of the surprise inside, only to be disillusioned when it was revealed that it was only clothes and not a real Christmas gift like a doll or a toy.

My mother and I sat at the kitchen table with fancy, formal stationary and a fountain pen with black ink in hand.

She wrote down: Dear Santa. I thought to myself, this is going to be a grand adventure.

And then she turned to ask me, “What do you want to tell Santa now?” I simply stared at her in silence and was speechless.

“What does a mere mortal tell the legendary and world renowned Santa Claus?” 

My mother seeing me in a stupefied state, like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming eighteen wheeler, gently prodded, “Maybe you can ask him how he and Mrs. Claus and the elves and reindeer are doing?” “Okay!” I readily agreed. 

And now that my mother had started the ball rolling, I quickly added, “And we can let Santa know that all of us and my friends at school are doing great.” 

“I’m sure he will be glad to know that,” my mother encouragingly fostered a sense of confidence in my “letter writing”. 

And so I “wrote” my very first Letter to Santa. 

And my mother and I continued to write Letters to Santa every year after the Thanksgiving dishes were cleaned and the guys went to the living room to watch the football game. 

My mother and I would sit down to write our Letter to Santa.

Marian Casillas, Ed.D.

Del Rio