Dear Zachary,
Ho! Ho! Ho! According to my list, you should now be old enough to read
cursive writing. Thank goodness! I love writing letters to all my young
friends, but I must admit that I can write a letter in cursive more
quickly than I can print.
Have you been a good boy this year?! Ho! Ho! I'll say
you have! Now, I'll let you in on two secrets. First, it's very, very
rare for a boy or girl to be bad. Practically every child tries
very hard to be the best person he or she can be. But the second secret
is, you
happen to be unusually well-behaved. You thank people when they do
something for you; you do thoughtful things for others and you serve as
a good example to your friends. No wonder everyone loves you so much!—Including me.
Now, all of us can stand some improvement, even me (as
Mrs. Claus so often reminds me)! The purpose of life is to improve
ourselves year by year. You might consider working to develop a little
more patience for people you think are not keeping up with you or don't
understand what you mean. If you try to see things from the other
person's point of view, I bet you can see where the disagreement or
confusion lies, and then it's usually a simple matter to clear things
up. Ask yourself: "Why did this person say or do that? It's not about
me, it's about how he or she sees the world. So, how do they see
the world that would make them say that or act like that?" When you have
learned to answer that question, you will find that things will be much
easier for you and for the people in your life.
Thank you for asking about my Christmas. My Christmas is
a work day, but I love my work so I love Christmas. I only get to spend
a fraction of a second in each house, but that split second seems like
an hour or so to me, so I feel like each Christmas lasts a year or two!
Which is why I need a cookie and some milk in each home to keep me
going. (But only one cookie—Mrs. Claus is very firm on that
point!) Because I am only in your home for a moment, I am gone before
your animals can notice me. Sometimes a dog might sense I have been
there and bark, but I am many houses away by then!
As to how I get into your home, well, it's a little hard
to explain but I will try. You are old enough now to understand I am not
an ordinary person. I am the Spirit of Christmas, the feeling people
have when they open their hearts and give their love to others and allow
others to love them in return. Wherever there are loving people, I am
always there. So you see, I don't exactly come "into" your home.
Because your home is filled with love, I am already there, as
well as everywhere else there is love and where people celebrate the
Spirit of Christmas.
Your best friend,
Santa