“My favourite car is a Mini Cooper.”
“My report card was pretty good.”
“Hank likes trucks!”
Kids’ letters to Santa, laboriously crafted in pencil or washable marker, show us what’s really on their minds.
The spelling may command some guesswork but there’s no mistaking the size of their hearts.
“I would like to give everyone in the hospital to be happy,” one eight-year-old tells Santa.
“I would like you to get my Opa some tools and my Oma a dress,” writes a five-year-old from Barrhead, Alta.
“My little sister would like a tuna raptor. A tuna raptor is blue. But if you don’t have no blue just paint it regular,” dictates a four-year-old to his mother.
“How have you been? I having some trouble to being good but I been experimenting,” admits one young man.
Another shows big vision: “I want lots of toys, a bobcat and a tractor. That’s all.”
Though you could fairly question the factuality of some of the letters (“This year I have been good all of the time”), they show a lot of heart (“I would like love for Christmas.”)
The letters express hope, like the three new Canadians who wrote Santa to say they arrived in the summertime from a remote African village and are looking forward to their first Christmas in Edmonton with snow and presents.
More than one child asked not for something for themselves, but for an ailing parent to get better.
One girl asked for nothing, simply writing what her mom termed a fan letter to Santa. However, she also inquired about Cliffy, the family Elf on the Shelf who is currently missing in action.
WATCH: 2017’s Edition of “Global Edmonton anchors read letters to Santa”
Above all, the letters show humour. A four-year-old girl declared to Santa, “My favourite colour is pink.” Her wish list includes a number of pink toys, and perhaps the most unusual ask:
“I would like for my poop to be pink.”
She is nothing if not a good big sister, remembering to tell Santa, “My little sister wants all the same things as me.”
And although they are young, they’re wise enough to know even Santa doesn’t pull off the feat that is Christmas alone, as evidenced by the child who ends her note with the edict: “And tell Mrs. Claus!”
From all of us to all of you, may the magic of the season be with you, young and old alike.