Letters to Santa

Now that I maintain only one email address, I am actually on top of my bulk mail/spam and am able to delete it every day (amazingly, I only get 2 - 8 pieces of spam a day). One piece caught my eye and I actually opened it. The subject was "Custom Santa Letters." My first thought was that someone was proposing to help create letters TO Santa from your child. Kind of like college essay prep, I thought to myself. Poor Joey doesn't write a very convincing letter yet, and wouldn't it be nice if someone could help him organize his thoughts and make sure he gets everything he wants put down on paper in coherent fashion. But that didn't make much sense unless the site was actually preying on that elite group of 6 year olds with not only their own computer access but their own credit cards (after all, what parent would fork out good $ to write a letter that would compel the parent to buy even more Christmas presents?).

Feeling a little paranoid about what would happen to my computer if I actually opened a piece of junk mail, I took a deep breath and entered the site. Aha! This isn't about letters TO Santa. It's about making sure your child gets a convincing letter FROM Santa. I didn't know that Santa was supposed to be writing back - I always figured that he's too busy making toys at his shop at the North Pole and he just shows up with the stuff. Right? Well apparently not. Santa writes back, and in order to convince your discerning kindergartner, you need to have one written by someone else for $9.99 - they'd never be fooled by your lame efforts. Personalized with your child's name! Signed by Santa himself! Includes your child's hometown! Sent with a Holiday Stamp! Postmarked from the North Pole! Wow! My child's name and hometown! Who would have thought of that? In any case, I didn't click on the "Order now" button. But I can't help wondering about what kind of parent would.