This Christmas is a particularly exciting Christmas. Firstly, it’s our first one as a family of four, and secondly, my three year old completely gets it now, making the whole process exciting from start to finish. A few weeks ago, we wrote our letter to Father Christmas, and toddled off to the post box to send it on its way. Every day since, Erin has been asking when he will write back, and was getting more and more impatient by the day. Whilst the free Royal Mail letter is lovely, it is obviously a templated letter, and not personalised in any shape or form. Last year we came across Classic Santa, and have never looked back. A truly magical personalised letter – I now post off to the royal mail, but share the Classic Santa reply with my daughter instead! 🙂
Classic Santa offer three different types of letter types –
- Classic – fully personalised with a north pole marked envelope, wrapped in beautiful red band foiled with gold.
- Original – as above but with the addition of a stunning real wax santa seal
- Luxury – as per the Original but with the addition of a personalised Nice List Certificate
The prices are £4.99 – 6.99 respectively.
Classic Santa also offer a Baby’s first Christmas option – this is much less personalised than the others but still features beautiful words and their name – something they can look back at when they are older!
Our Experience
The Classic Santa letters are very easy to create online, even for someone who is lacking in technical skills! You simply complete the details at the top of the page and a ‘live’ template updates on screen so you can track the impact of your edits.
The personalisation includes not only name, age and address but also:
- Who they will be with on Christmas Day
- Where they will be on the day (great for separated families or those who will be staying with grandparents etc)
- Achievement during the year
- What they have asked for this year
- What they received last year
- What they will be leaving out for Father Christmas
- Whether they have written to him
- Whether they have been naughty or nice – great for encouraging good behaviour in last few weeks
- Whether or not they have a chimney
Using the mocked up letter, you can then change each paragraph to your preferred phrase or tone – with each paragraph having at least 4 options. By using the live template, you can ensure you have written your personalised elements in the correct tone/tense/phrasing, and can tweak and see immediately the impact it will have.
One thing I LOVE is the fact you can choose between Santa and Father Christmas for the sign off as a lot of letters pick only one and each family is different. We have always referred to him as Father Christmas, where as I consider Santa to be a bit more American. I also love that by specifying you don’t have a chimney, the child can be reassured that Father Christmas has other means of getting in, and be comforted by the fact it wont prevent him from getting in! 🙂
The extensive personalisation really adds to the authenticity of the letter.
Our letter was posted on the first day of Classic Santa deliveries. They only deliver from the 5th December, so even if you apply early, it doesnt get sent early. Erin was SO excited to see it land on the doorstep. The envelope looks very official and posh, with beautiful branding that almost glistens on the mat! 🙂
When opening, you need to very carefully peel away the wax seal – I recommend that Mummy and Daddy help with this bit as you don’t want to wrip the letter underneath! 🙂 Last year my other half was a bit heavy handed and slightly tore the paper. I think he was as excited as Erin was!!
We sat and read the letter outloud to Erin and her little face was a picture. She was also very pleased to see that her baby sister hadn’t been left out too – despite only being 3 months old! Father Christmas thanked her for her letter and advised her that he was aware of the items she had put on her list! In this case, a hatchimal (thank god mummy went shopping early!), paw patrol mashems and a Elena of Avalor dress! 🙂
Her nice girl certificate is a lovely touch, and we pop this into her Christmas Eve box to remind her that she is still on the good list! 🙂
Overall we are chuffed to bits with the Classic Santa letters, as we were last year, and will definitely continue to order year on year as our girls grow up! Classic Santa are the most authentic looking letters we have seen for a long time and made the experience just magical for our daughter.
Pros:
- Extensive personalisation
- Authentic looking design including North Pole postmark and wax seal
- Great value for money
- Luxury letters include nice girl certificate which is a really lovely extra touch
- Can make completely unique
- References the child’s friends adding to the authenticity
- Can track the changes you make immediately so there are no surprises or errors when the letter arrives
- Deliveries start from 5th December, so you can order early but not receive it too early!
- Ordering process very straightforward
Cons:
- As lovely as the wax seal is, you do have to be quite careful when peeling open the letter as the seal backs on to part of the letter itself, so any heavy handedness could damage the letter itself which would be a real shame.
- Some people might want the letter to be the beginning of their Elf on the Shelf tradition, in which case the first postage date of the 5th December would be too late. I would personally recommend that Classic Santa offer delivery from the 1st.
*Disclosure – we were sent a Luxury Letter for my daughters in exchange for this review, however all thoughts, opinions and images are my own.*
