Children are now emailing Father Christmas rather than writing to him, charity says

Children are more likely to email their present requests to Father Christmas rather than write a traditional letter, the head of a literacy charity has warned.

Matthew Hickey, chief executive of the Children’s Literacy Charity, told the Telegraph that he feared that technology is taking over as parents find it easier to let their child send a quick email instead of sitting down to pen a letter to Santa.

Mr Hickey said that he considered the age old tradition of writing to Father Christmas to be “paramount to a child’s development”.

He said: “For me, being able to write a letter to Santa has a certain nostalgic feel to retaining what this time of the year is all about - which is making sure that children are able to be children,” he said.

"It is about developing children who are multifaceted, who can do everything to prepare them for the future.

"Not just being able to be prepared for the digital age, but actually being prepared to put pen to paper and use those multiple skills."

The tradition of sending a letter to Santa dates back to the 1200s when a little girl wrote to the real Saint Nicholas, a bishop who lived in Myra, now Turkey.

Since that time boys and girls across the globe have taken on the tradition of writing to Father Christmas, detailing whether or not they have been good or bad and politely requesting gifts.

In 1963 the Royal Mail encouraged the tradition by providing a Letters to Santa Service which still sees hundreds of thousands of children writing to Father Christmas each year.

However, Mr Hickey said that the art of being able to write a letter should not be lost amongst modern day technology.

He said: “if you can't handwrite, how can you answer an exam question properly, or fill out an application form?

"We know there is a lot of stuff happening online but having that skill of handwriting will always be needed."

Jonathan Douglas, director National Literacy trust a charity which provides disadvantaged children with literacy skills, agreed with Mr Hickey.

He said: “Research has found that writing letters can help to improve children’s writing attainment”.

However he also pointed out that not all technology is bad and cited blogging websites as being beneficial in improving a child’s literacy but he said that emails do not provide the same benefits.

Contrary to Mr Hickey’s fears, the Royal Mail said that it had seen a rise in the number of Children writing to Santa this year.

The spokesperson said: “Even in the 21st Century, children continue to write personal handwritten letters to Santa. In fact, we have lot more letters this year than we did the previous year and Santa and his helpers are working very hard to respond to all the letters he has received.”