One of the many fun features of last Saturday’s Holiday Stroll was the collection box at Savvy + Grace for kids’ letters to Santa.
(SPOILER ALERT: If you are 8 years old or younger, and/or still believe in Santa Claus, stop reading now!)
Santa — aka as “I,” aka as Dan Woog, founder of “06880” which co-sponsored the Stroll with the Westport Downtown Association — already responded to those dozens of letters.
At least, to the ones that included addresses. And the ones I could read and/or understand. Don’t they teach handwriting and spelling in kindergarten anymore?
Savvy + Grace owner Annette Norton, with her Santa letter box at the Holiday Stroll. (Photo/Dan Woog)
So what do kids want in 2025, an era in which toddlers play with iPads, Disney owns marketing rights to the entire planet, and toys now come equipped with AI “brains”?
Lots of Legos. Roller skates. Stuffed animals. Skateboards. Nerf guns.
Those are the kinds of things Santa/I can relate to. At a time when he/I think the world has gone cuckoo, and his elves are threatening to unionize, we give a sigh of relief that at least some Westport kids are still, well, kids.
Need proof? Here’s a particularly thorough one. I like Mateo’s clarity (including “I want my games digital”).
“Ill be okay if I dont get everything” was a particularly nice touch.
Of course, other letters gave him/me pause.
One letter writer requested “an orange jeep, vacation to London, hand warmers and gummi bears.” (Perhaps this was not written by a 6-year-old. One clue: It was signed “MaryAnne.” Today’s kids do not have normal names. Brooklyn, Serafina, Kierra, Vienna, yeah. But not MaryAnne.)
Then there’s Xander. (Great name!) In addition to a sweatshirt with a Ram truck, and a “cool bracelet,” he asked for “a good day with my family.” Well done, kid!
And someone who didn’t sign his or her name, but asked for “health for my grandparents, myself and my friend Itty Bitty” — very sweet. Though Santa/I wonder why he didn’t include his parents. There wasn’t a word count on the form.
But this one really tugged at the heartstrings:
Santa can’t fulfill every wish. But that’s a window into what is on at least one child’s mind this season.
We’ll end with Sophia. She asks for a lot, from an iPhone (if possible 🙂 ) and 3D printer, to manga, bubble products, and popcorn and snow cone machines.
Santa/yours truly would need a special sack for her house alone.
But there — nestled between croissant jellycat and baking supplies — is “world peace” 🙂
Thanks, Sophie. Santa (and I) will see what we can do.
(So what does “06880” wish for? We don’t need Legos or Jellycats. We would love world peace. But if you really want to get us something, please click here to support this blog. Ho ho ho!)
World Peace would be Sweet! Well Done Danny me boy, well done!
Merry Christmas Dan and to your readers!
Dan — teaching “handwriting and spelling in Kindergarten”?? — they certainly didn’t do much of that even back in “our” day… But the tragedy is that these days, after teaching our kids to print in block letters in 1st grade or so, schools these days don’t bother teaching cursive writing at all! A thank you note for a Bar- or Bat-Mitzvah present — or even a thank you note for a wedding present to an Ivy-League graduate looks like it was written (under threat of detention!) by a third-grader! – Scott
Scott, not only is cursive writing not taught — many young people today cannot READ it. To them, it’s like me trying to decipher writing from the 17th century.
Now, when I write a note to teenagers (and even 20somethings), I print it. I’m not kidding.
Our grandkids in Howard County Maryland (Ellicott City to be exact) are taught cursive writing.
As a little side note, we have 19 high schools too.