One of the best Christmas traditions our family has practiced throughout the years has been the Santa Letter. Every year, my children have written their ?wish list? to Santa Claus. It started off very basic in the beginning years but gradually became more complex as the children got older. My oldest is now 14?and even though he no longer believes, he still enjoys writing the letter every year to make certain his wishes are heard.

Many things can be learned from a . For the children, it is their basic writing skills, letter development, grammar and proper sentence structure and punctuation. My children made a project out of it. It involved computer knowledge using Microsoft word. They learned to type, use spell-check, open and save a file. They even learned how to insert pictures, change text color and modify font sizes to improve the look of their Santa Letter. It was a great ?technology? experience for them.

For parents, it is a great tool to find out what your kids want for Christmas without being so obvious. You learn all their small and large wishes so you can prepare for your holiday shopping. You may want to start your Santa Letter project with your kids early so that you can start paying attention to all the sales associated with items on their wish list. I would recommend starting the week before Thanksgiving. That way, you can catch the black Friday sales!

Once your children's Santa Letters are completed and printed, I gathered the letters and let my children know I would mail it for them. Then, I would order a letter from Santa Claus be sent to them. There are several websites that do this but I liked this one the best?.www.santalettersink.com. They were timely and well written letters.