Tuesday, December 15, 2009

A Letter From Santa Claus - Wow! What a Memory!

How about a memory from Santa Claus! What a scrapbook layout that would make! And years from now, your older child, will look back and have a great memory of Santa!

I did this last year - paid someone to do it, but this year I asked around and got the "how to" to do it myself! Here is my plan for today! I have not done this this way before, but it doesn't seem to be a problem. It is a common thing for this post office to do, so I am going to give it a try!

YOU write the letter to your child or grand child "from" Santa. Find some nice stationery - google: stationery and see what free things you can find. Just make sure you use stationery that the child DOESN'T know you have! Or just go to Michael's or Joanne's and choose some 8x10 Christmas themed sheets to print on.

Create the letter from Santa's point of view. Inlcude things specific to the child that "Santa" would know. Mention family, friends, their pet, school, anything that is important to the child and would be something that "Santa" would know. Of course, include things the traditional things Santa would say like, "I know you have been good this year" or "It was very nice of you to have helped ___________this year" or "I know you had some sad times this year, but I will bring you some holiday happiness........" Anything that will relate to your child specifically.
Of course, sign it with a beautiful signature by Santa!

Choose an nice festive envelope and address the envelope to the child. Place a stamp on the envelope. Go to the PO and get some holiday or christmas themed stamps. Something the child has not seen!

NOW>>>>>>>>>>
This late in the game you might want to use USPS Priority FLAT RATE Mail - ($4.05 and 2-3 business days)

In the Priority FLAT RATE envelope (free at the Post Office) place your sealed and stamped letter(s). In this case you can write letters to many kids, place in their own envelopes and place ALL of those letters in the same Priority FLAT RATE envelope. It is $4.05 for as many as you can fit in the envelope and the envelope close properly. Great if you have a group of kids!

Mail it to:
North Pole Christmas Cancellation,
Postmaster,
5400 Mail Trail,
Fairbanks, AK 99709-9999.
The post office there is perfectly accustomed to this, and will take care of opening the Priority Mail envelope you sent the letters in and mailing the individual letters for you to the children.

On that surprise day - the little ones get a letter from Santa! I can already hear the squeals of excitment and wonder! Have your camera ready for that wonderful photo of that adorable face when they open the letter!

THEN........... after Christmas......... a scrapbook layout is created! And all you have to do is make a pocket for the letter so it can be taken out (repeatedly I am sure!) and looked at, matte the photo(s), add a title, and you are done with a most wonderful and precious memory!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Great idea, Cheri, and great information.
Just a quick note. The Priority Mail envelope you mentioned is actually a flat rate envelope, so you can mail as much as you want, as heavy as you want, as many letters as you can fit into the envelope, for just $4.05. So a teacher could send letters from the entire class, for instance, in one envelope!
Hmm. I wonder if my grandpuppy would like a letter from Santa . . .
Susan

Scrapbook Layout Ideas said...

Susan - Yes, you are right. I did forget to mention FLAT RATE. It's up to a pound on the regular envys but as much as you can fit in on Flat Rate. Thanks for mentioning that.