Simple ways to keep your child believing in Santa
ByParents love to see the look of joy and excitement Santa Claus can bring to their child. For many people, childhood memories of Father Christmas are the best Christmas memories they have. Keeping your child believing in Santa, however, can be a daunting task. Children are very smart these days, and some of the old Santa tricks just don’t get by them anymore.
Many children are plagued with the question, “Is there REALLY a Santa Claus?”Every family has different Christmas traditions with regards to Santa Claus, but there are some very easy things any person can do to keep the belief in Santa at an all time high. The following tips and tricks will keep your child believing in the magic and wonderment of Santa Claus and you don’t have to be familiar with the history of Santa Claus to apply them.
1) Have your child write a Santa Letter. This can be a simple letter that your child can write to Santa Claus. Children absolutely love to write a letter to Santa, but they occasionally need a little parental guidance to pull it off. Help your child include a special list of gifts they desire for Christmas into the Santa letter. Many children enjoy creativity and drawing or cutting out pictures that represent the gifts they want. Once the child’s Santa letter is finished, simply mail it to the North Pole. Mail it to the following Santa Claus address: Santa Claus, 1 Candy Cane Lane, North Pole 00001. Don’t bother using a return address, you wouldn’t want it to return as ‘undeliverable’ for any reason.
2) Write a Letter from Santa and have your child receive it in the mail. Create a personalized letter from Santa by directly mentioning your child’s name and certain information about your child in the text. This will make for a much more believable Santa letter. Be sure to make these letters from Santa different for each child in the same household. The child will have no doubt that Santa Claus is coming to town after they receive their personalized letter from Santa! “I can honestly state as a parent that the personalized letter from Santa has single handedly restored my son’s belief!” Print the Santa letter on authentic looking letterhead, as this will help to reinforce the believability. You can add to the festive fun by having your letter from Santa postmarked ‘The North Pole’. If you live in the USA, simply send your Santa letter inside another sealed, stamped envelope to: North Pole Christmas Cancellation, Postmaster, 5400 Mail Trail, Fairbanks, AK 99709-9999. (It needs to arrive by December 15th) Many parents add a certificate for being on Santa’s “Nice List” along with the Santa Letter for added effect. Another great item to add with the Santa letter is a Santa Claus coloring sheet. Combining the personalized Santa letter, the certificate and the Santa Claus coloring sheet is a great way to keep your child believing.
3) Have your child leave milk and cookies out for Santa Claus (and a carrot for the reindeer) on Christmas Eve. This is simple enough to do with your child. It lets your child know YOU still believe, too. Make it a bonding experience for you and your child by baking the cookies together on Christmas Eve. Don’t underestimate how powerful this can be for creating joyful memories of Santa Claus, for both you and your child. Did you know for example that Santa’s favorite cookie recipe is Chocolate Chip? Place the cookies on a plate next to a glass of cold milk. You can even put a short letter to Santa Claus next to the cookies and milk. These treats will give Santa the energy he needs to continue traveling to the millions of other children awaiting his arrival. Don’t forget to leave some crumbs on the plate Christmas morning. Your child will feel honored that Santa Claus ate the whole plate of cookies and drank all of the milk before rushing on his way.
4) On Christmas Eve, ask your little one to sprinkle reindeer food on the lawn. Santa Claus gets milk and cookies on Christmas Eve, but what about Rudolph and the rest of the joyful gang? What do they eat? Well, reindeer food, of course! You can make a batch of environmentally friendly reindeer food with common grocery items such as oats or granola. (Do not use hazardous items, such as glitter in your reindeer food. Although this may make the reindeer food appear to be magical in some way, it can be extremely dangerous if ingested by small children, should they decide to ‘sample’ the reindeer food. It can also be hazardous to rabbits, dogs, or cats that may eat the food.) Once you have the reindeer food mixed up, walk outside with your child on Christmas Eve night and explain the importance of making sure Santa’s sleigh team stays fed. Sprinkle a tiny amount onto your lawn, bushes or trees. This healthy reindeer snack will give Rudolph and the rest of the reindeer the nourishment they need to continue flying Santa’s heavy sleigh into the night. Your little one will be proud of helping Santa Claus on his journey, and is sure to raise the belief in Rudolph and the other reindeer as well.
5) Leave Santa Claus tracks in your house on Christmas Eve. Being sure to not stain your carpet, leave some boot prints by the fireplace (or in the doorway). Be sure to draw attention to Father Christmas’ footprints on Christmas morning. To a child, this is solid evidence that Santa had been to their house.
6) A month or so after Christmas, send your child a postcard from Santa Claus on vacation. This not only keeps your child believing, but reminds your child that Santa is in their hearts all year long. It also answers the common question posed by children after Christmas, “Where is Santa Claus now?” Be sure to make the postcard from somewhere very warm and sunny. After all, Santa does need a break from all that North Pole snow.
7) Mail your child a birthday greeting from Santa Claus. This tips works well in tandem with the personalized Santa Letter you mailed your child previously. Mailing your child a simple birthday card from Santa is an excellent way to keep your child’s belief high throughout the year. Your child will think, “Wow! Santa actually knows my birthday!” Parents that have extremely intelligent kids or kids that are getting slightly older will genuinely need to utilize all seven techniques mentioned above to keep their child believing in Santa Claus.
These techniques will assure your child is one of the millions of children that write Santa Letters each and every holiday season… one of the millions of children that believe wholeheartedly in Santa Claus. A reputable, inexpensive website that offers all of this as a service can be found here PackageFromSanta.com