Letters to Santa Claus

October 1, 2015

Santa Claus is real. At least, it's a real place, a town in southern Indiana with, "Head Elf" and foreword author Pat Koch explains, streets named Mistletoe, Rudolph, and Kringle Place. The latter is the home of the Santa Claus Museum, founded by Koch's father, a man who swore that if he survived World War I he would return to his festively named town and play Santa Claus for the rest of his life. He survived and was true to his word. The book opens with a short history of the town and museum, which is followed by more than 250 letters (and envelopes) arranged chronologically by decade from the 1930s through the 2010s. The missives will inform readers about the times in which they were written and are often very affecting. The first one, for example, is from a nine-year-old girl in the 1930s asking for warm gloves, shoes, and underwear for her siblings. Listing them by name, she closes the missive "and the rest are dead." Other letters name dozens of toys to bring, plaintively ask for the writer's heart's desire ("the thing I want most is a dog. dog. dog."), or even try bargaining ("I will trade you my sister when she comes from the stork for a elf"). VERDICT A touching gift book that also offers an unusual window into American history.--Henrietta Verma, Library Journal

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