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'DeAR SANTA': young girl's letter to Father Christmas in 1883 uncovered
The Guardian
|December 03, 2025
The toys on the Christmas wish list may have evolved in more than 140 years but children, it seems, do not change.
That, at least, is the suggestion of a newly uncovered letter to Father Christmas dating from 1883, believed to be one of the earliest known such messages in the UK.
The letter, addressed “to DeAR SANTA CLAus”, was written by a six-year-old girl called Janet and preserves her idiosyncratic spelling and capitalisation. “PLeAs BRIng a Doll to Me with a cRADEL, AND a TRUMPtet to JiMMie, AND SoMe OTHer THing to MA AND PA,” wrote Janet.
The letter had been sent to the Leeds Mercury newspaper, the paper reported on 22 December 1883. “The printer could easily have put Jane’s [sic] note into better shape,” it said, “but then it would have been his and not hers, and it might not in that case have reached Santa Claus, which it is sure to do now.
This story is from the December 03, 2025 edition of The Guardian.
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