Sadness, greed feature in Santa letters

Press, 22 December 1986, Page 8

Sadness, greed feature in Santa letters

Ashburton reporter

Mid-Canterbury children’s letters to Santa range from the sad to the excessive, says the organiser of the scheme, Mr Albert Mclntosh.

Mr Mclntosh, the secretary of Ashburton’s Pakeke Lion’s Club, initiated a scheme this year whereby children could write to Santa, and the club would answer. They had several return letters to choose from, so not all children would get the same reply.

. Mr Mclntosh said that about 50 letters had been received. They were mostly from young children, he said, and so “they had not really got carried away.”. He did, however, cite two letters he said were memorable. The first was from a young girl who sent a foolscap page full of requested presents, only to restore Santa’s faith at the end of the

page by saying, “But I realise I will not get all these.”

The second, Mr Mclntosh said, was not as cheerful. The letter had come s from the children of a broken home, where the father had “walked out” recently. The ages of the children ranged from 14 years to six months, he said. Each child would receive a reply, to “cheer them up a little.”

A $2 fee was asked to be sent, by parents, with the letters. The fees would go to a charity, Mr Mclntosh said, but just which charity was not decided yet.

Letters would be sent to’ children in the week .of Christmas. Mr Mclntosh said that in answer to some of the “impossible” requests, the letter would say that Santa may have run out of that particular gift, as many other boys and girls wanted it also.