Early letters to Santa

U.S. Stamp Notes by John M. Hotchner

Writing letters to Santa Claus has a long and honorable history. How long? That’s what I’d like to find out, and I’m hoping Linn’s readers can help.

I’ve found two examples, one from 1898, shown in Figure 1, and another from 1899, as shown front and back in Figure 2. They are quite different.

The 1898 example in Figure 1 seems to have been sent by a parent on behalf of a child. The parent even went so far as to attach a then-current 2¢ Washington definitive issue, which is pen-canceled with the date Dec. 13, 1898, giving Santa lots of time to answer. Even with the pen cancel, there is no indication that this example ever went into the mailstream.

The 1899 example in Figure 2 is a genuine postal artifact. It is addressed to “Santa Claus, Care of eveing (sic.) World, P.O. Box 2. 354, N.Y. City”. The cover has no postage, but it seems to have been delivered anyway, without the assessment of postage due or recovery of postage.

It is safe to conjecture that the New York Evening World newspaper, which was published until 1931, had invited petitions to be sent to the proprietor of the North Pole dream factory, thereby explaining the lack of postage and cancels front and back.

It is fun to think of what message might have been in the more than 125-year-old envelope, and who might have sent it.

Perhaps the youngster was wishing for a very fine example of the $1 Western Cattle in Storm stamp (Scott 292) of the Trans-Mississippi series issued the year before in 1898.

If you can report earlier letters to Santa Claus, please contact me, John Hotchner, by email at jmhstamp@verizon.net, or at Box 1125, Falls Church, VA 22041-0125.

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