Early Letters to Toyland
In a May 1923 letter to his mother, Thomas Wolfe reminisced about some of his earliest memories. He noted from age three, “I became conscious of Santa Claus and send scrawls up the chimney.” His sister Mabel Wolfe Wheaton, in her book Thomas Wolfe and His Family, recalled “Papa insisted on our writing letters to Santa Claus. And he demanded that we write the old gentleman early.” In Look Homeward, Angel, Wolfe described young Eugene Gant sending his Christmas wishes up the chimney.
“. . . night after night in the late autumn and early winter, he would scrawl petitions to Santa Claus, listing interminably the gifts he wanted most, and transmitting each, with perfect trust, to the roaring chimney. As the flame took the paper from his hand and blew its charred ghost away with a howl, Gant would rush with him to the window, point to the stormy northern sky, and say: ‘There it goes! Do you see it?’ He saw it. He saw his prayer, winged with the stanch convoying winds, borne northward to the rimed quaint gables of Toyland, into frozen merry Elfland . . .”
Throwing Christmas wish lists into the fireplace, or placing letters on the hearth, provided a magical way for children to communicate their desires to the North Pole. A history of letters to Santa Claus found in Time magazine shows our modern Christmas traditions began developing over the course of the 19th century. Some were inspired by the 1823 publication of the poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” by Clement Clarke Moore. Cartoonist Thomas Nast’s 1871 Christmas cartoon, published in Harper’s Weekly, was perhaps the first to depict letter writing to Santa. Nast illustrated Santa Claus reviewing copious amounts of letters sent by parents on behalf of naughty and nice children. Many methods of communicating with Santa Claus developed over time, including, as Thomas Wolfe remembered, sending letters up the chimney.
An article in Smithsonian magazine explained, “During these early decades of Santa’s evolution in the U.S., not only did the saint travel in and out of homes via the chimney, so did his mail.” This tradition has deep roots in the United Kingdom. Some children let convection whisk their lists up the chimney in their entirety. Others burned their letters to let the ashes carry their messages to Santa Claus. In Scotland, children shouted their wishes up the chimney. In 2016, a letter addressed to Father Christmas written in 1925 was found inside a remodeled Eastbourne, England chimney.
In the US, another Thomas Nast cartoon from 1879 demonstrated the growing role of the US Postal Service in the holiday tradition. It depicted a young boy dropping a letter in the mail addressed to “St. Claus North Pole.” Following the Civil War, as the US postal system became more efficient, the price of postage dropped, making the sending of letters more accessible to families. Soon, local post offices began receiving growing numbers of letters addressed to Santa Claus. In some places, good Samaritans replied to the letters or aided in passing them to charities for children in need.
Although his earliest letters to Santa likely disappeared up the chimney, at least one list escaped the flames for posterity. A young Thomas wrote to Santa Claus, circa 1906:
“My Dear Santa Claus, I will Start my christmas letter. I want a Horn and some fruits. I want a Slate and Some chalk. I want a signet ring and a sweater. I want Some drawing pencils. I want a great big drawing Tablet. I want Some Picture books. I want a air rifle. I want a Sled. I want a soldier suit. Your friend Thomas Wolfe.”
And it appears that many of his early wishes came true. In Look Homeward, Angel, Wolfe wrote, “he was liberally dowered with bright-painted gimcracks upon Christmas Day; and in his heart he hated those who advocated ‘useful’ gifts. Gant bought him wagons, sleds, drums, horns . . .”
For more information on the history of letter-writing to Santa Claus:
https://time.com/4147998/history-letters-to-santa-claus/ and https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/brief-history-sending-letter-santa-180957441/?no-ist
