First letter to Father Christmas discovered from girl requesting paints in 1895

The first recorded evidence of a British child’s letter to Santa Claus has emerged in time for Christmas.

A newspaper cutting shows that the Post Office was able to “communicate” with Father Christmas in 1895 on behalf of a little girl who had asked for a box of paints. It even managed to make her wish come true.

Ashley March, who has made a study of letters to Father Christmas, spotted the cutting in the digital archives of the British Library. He found it in a copy of the Grantham Journal, dated December 24 1896, which reported the letter being sent the previous Christmas.

“It was really exciting,” he told The Sunday Telegraph. 

The report, headed “Father Christmas Was Found”, joked that the Post Office “can even communicate with so mythical a personage as Father Christmas”. It added that a letter had been received the previous Christmas addressed to “Father Christmas, The North Pole, G.P.O. [General Post Office]”.

The report continued: “On its being opened, it was found to contain the following communication: – ‘Please, Father Christmas, send me a box of paints for New Year's Day.’ The authorities ‘found’ Father Christmas, and in the course of a few days the trustful little correspondent received her box of paints.”

Chris Taft, Head of Collections at the Postal Museum, said: “What Ashley’s research uncovered is absolutely fascinating and an intriguing insight into postal history. We at the Postal Museum don’t know of any earlier example, so this very much looks to be – based on what we know currently – the earliest example of a British child writing to Santa Claus.’

Mr March, who now works at the Museum of London as digital editor for learning, was an archive assistant at the Postal Museum when he conducted the research four years ago. But, beyond giving a talk there, he has not revealed the discovery publicly until now.

He decided to release it after partnering with Gimi, the pocket money and financial education app for children, which has conducted research into what children today want for Christmas. Data from 150,000 of its young users showed that the top three most popular gifts are smartphones, computers and wireless headphones.

Mr March’s interest in Father Christmas was sparked after a visitor to the Postal Museum asked him ‘Do you know what happens to the letters to Santa?’ He began researching the subject, delving into the Royal Mail Archive, which has “quite a few files dedicated to what it calls ‘Santa mail’”, among other sources.

The oldest example of a letter posted to Santa in Britain was thought to date from 1899 - although it was not sent by a child. It came instead from a postal prankster called W Reginald Bray. Mr March notes that his ‘Please forward’ note was not enough information for the Post Office which stamped it ‘Insufficiently addressed’ in returning it to the sender with a surcharge of a hapeny (halfpenny) for flouting the rules.

In 1963, the Post Office issued a press release from Father Christmas himself saying that he would be able to reply to letters “from Reindeerland” if they had a return address. The Post Office sent out expected to send 5,000 replies that year, but actually sent 7,500. Every year, the Royal Mail now receives hundreds of thousands of special letters on behalf of Santa from children across the country. Santa himself replies to everyone who has supplied a correct name and return address.