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Tag Archives: Santa Claus

Santa writes back! ~ Get a letter from the North Pole

03 Sunday Dec 2017

Posted by Elizabeth Fais in Holiday, Writing

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Christmas, Elizabeth Fais, letters, merry and bright, Miracle on 34th Street, North Pole, North Pole cancellation, Santa Claus, snail mail, Writing

Yes, Virginia. There is a Santa Claus!

The United States Postal Service can help you prove it too. Santa can reply to your child’s letter from his workshop, complete with a North Pole postmark.

North Pole Postmark

How to get a North Pole postmark

You can make Santa and his workshop real for your child with a personal reply to their letter that includes a North Pole postmark. Here’s how.

  1. Write a letter to your child and sign it From Santa.
  2. Put the letter in an envelope and address it to your child.
  3. Add the return address SANTA, NORTH POLE.
  4. Affix a First Class stamp to the envelope.
  5. Place the complete envelope in a larger envelope with the appropriate postage (to cover the extra weight), and address to:
    North Pole Postmark
    Postmaster
    4141 Postmark Dr.
    Anchorage, AK 99530-9998

If you want to know how writing letters to Santa became a thing, you can read Alex Palmer’s A Brief History of Sending a Letter to Santa in Smithsonian Magazine.

Miracle on 34th Street


The Making of Santa Claus

13 Sunday Dec 2015

Posted by Elizabeth Fais in Fun Facts, History, Holiday

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Clement Clarke Moore, Coca~Cola, Diedrich Knickerbocker, Harper's Weekly, Miracle on 34th Street, Montgomery Ward Company, Norman Rockwell, North Pole, North Pole cancellation, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Santa Claus, Saturday Evening Post, Sinterklaas, The Night Before Christmas, Thomas Nast, Washington Irving

Santa Claus, the cultural icon we know today, was made in America. I knew about the real Saint Nicholas, but was surprised to discover that the “jolly ol’ guy in the red suit” was an American literary creation and marketing manifestation.

Santa Claus dolls

Many faiths share the custom of gift giving around this time of year. Which is why it’s kind of amazing that the predominant icon for the season is a fictional character created in America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. [PC: Moi, taken at Filoli]

The Original St. Nick

St. Nicholas was a 4th-century Greek saint from an area that is now St. NicholasTurkey, who had a reputation for putting coins in the shoes that were left out for him. As the patron saint of children, he was most often associated with giving them gifts.

One of the many generous deeds attributed to Saint Nicholas was providing dowries for the daughters of three impoverished families, so the girls could wed. In those days, a woman without a dowry was unlikely to marry, and then her fate was often to be sold into slavery (read: prostitution).  [Public Domain: Saint Nicholas]

Santa Claus ~ Literary Creation

Early Dutch settlers brought Sinterklaas to America, and the name first appeared in print in 1773 as “St. A Claus.” However, it was not until the 19th century that the Americanized Santa Claus came into being.The Night Before Christmas, book cover

Washington Irving gave Americans the first detailed information about the man we would come to know as Santa Claus. In 1809, writing under the pen name Diedrich Knickerbocker, Irving described the St. Nick’s arrival on horseback each year on the Eve of Saint Nicholas (December 6th).

A few years later, Clement Clarke Moore created the Americanized Santa Claus in his 1823 poem A Visit From Saint Nicholas—today known as The Night Before Christmas. Moore gave Santa’s reindeer names, described Santa’s mannerisms, and even introduced his leaving your house by up the chimney.

Marketing Manifestation

The American image of Santa Claus came into focus with illustrator, Thomas Nast. Nast’s Santa Clause, Harper's Weeklydrawings for the Christmas issues of Harper’s magazine from the 1860s to the 1880s were of a rotund man with a white beard, wearing a red suit. Nast even added the details for Santa’s workshop at the North Pole and his list of good and bad children of the world. [Public Domain: Thomas Nast illustration of Santa Claus]

Norman Rockwell further popularized the American image of Santa Santa Claus, Norman RockwellClause with his many Santa themed covers for the Saturday Evening Post. Then in the 1930’s, Coca-Cola created illustrations for an advertising campaign that turned Santa’s red suit into the cultural icon it is today.

Rudolph (the ninth reindeer) with his red, shiny nose, was invented by an advertising writer for the Montgomery Ward Company in 1939. [Public Domain: Two covers for the Saturday Evening Post by Norman Rockwell]

Written Into Reality

With Santa Claus a predominant image in national media, children across America began Miracle on 34th Streetto write him letters. The letters to Santa piled up at post offices, where some postal workers took it upon themselves to answer the letters and even fulfilling the requests.

Hollywood played on this theme in the 1947 classic, Miracle on 34th Street, cementing the image of the jolly ol’ guy in the red suit as a “very real” holiday icon.

To make Santa and his workshop even more real, the USPS provides a service where you can get a North Pole cancellation stamp on a card or letter. I’m not kidding.

To obtain a North Pole cancellation stamp:

  1. Write a letter to your child and sign it From Santa.
  2. Put the letter in an envelope and address it to your child.
  3. Add the return address SANTA, NORTH POLE.
  4. Affix a First Class stamp to the envelope.
  5. Place the complete envelope in a larger envelope with the appropriate postage (to cover the extra weight), and address to:
  6. North Pole Postmark
    Postmaster
    4141 Postmark Dr.
    Anchorage, AK 99530-9998

For more about how writing letters to Santa became a standard practice, read Alex Palmer’s A Brief History of Sending a Letter to Santa in Smithsonian Magazine.


What Sparks the Romance of Writing?

15 Monday Dec 2014

Posted by Elizabeth Fais in Romance, Story, Writing

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Elizabeth Fais, Joss Whedon, Liv Rancourt, Romance, Santa Claus, Story, The Santa Drag, Umberto Eco, Writing

The force behind the creative process…

JossWhedonQuote2What compels writers to subject ourselves to endless hours of isolation, the nagging weight of self-doubt, and endless abuse from our inner critics? Not the lure of millions, I dare say.

Yes, there are writers who hit the bestseller lottery. But if you asked them “why” they write, I would bet many reasons would come before the mention of money.

Umberto Eco summed elegantly up the source of the writer’s creative spark when he said, “To survive we must tell stories.”

Joss Whedon (creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer) explained how writing is tangible therapy, a way to face and overcome weaknesses, fears, and insecurities.

And then there are writers, like Liv Rancourt, who embrace their craft out of the sheer love of the stories they create. Through the process they become the characters and live vicariously through them, experiencing their hopes, dreams, heartaches and joys.

Liv Rancourt on Romance and Writing

Liv Rancourt, is a paranormal romance author with a flair for witty dialog, quirky characters, and stories that resonate with the heart. I’m reposting an excerpt she wrote about why she writes fiction woven with romantic themes, because I can’t think of a better topic for the holiday season. Because everything is more magical when love is in the air

So, why romance? Yesterday I had a couple hours of downtime and spent it in the company of Aidan, Krys, Mirren, Lucy & their friends while reading the novel Redemption by Susannah Sandlin. Okay, there were vampires involved, but the love story rocked and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

That just about sums it up. Write a love story that’s grounded in reality (or some The Santa Drag coverparanormal version thereof), involving well-drawn characters and genuine conflict, and you will have me eating out of the palm of your hand…though that’s probably not an image we want to dwell on. Instead, know that I read to have fun, and good romances are almost always fun.

If I want real-world conflict (read: sadness & pain), I’ll go to work. Sometimes I don’t even have to go that far; conflict comes to me, invading my personal space. That’s how life is. When I read, I want the assurance that the characters are going to end up happy, which is one of the hallmarks of the romance novel.

And then there’s the whole falling-in-love thing. Like most people of the human persuasion, I love to fall in love. However, after seventeen years of marriage, pretty much the only falling I get to do these days is in the pages of a book. My husband is an awesome guy, but our infatuation days were a LOOOONNGGG time ago. With a romance novel, I can experience a little vicarious infatuation stretched out over two or three days, and almost always get dinner to the table on time.

It gets even better when I write my own. I have a whole thumb-drive full of crushes. My ideal romantic heroes are often tough guys with hard fists and soft hearts. Well, except for Joe, from my short story The Santa Drag. He’s an actor, and the heroine Mackenzie describes him as the Robert Downey Jr. type: good-looking, charming and just a little bit naughty. He’s turned up in a couple of my short stories now, flashing his “yep, I’m handsome” grin and driving Mack crazy.

To read an excerpt of The Santa Drag, go here.

The Santa Drag is available exclusively from Amazon [Kindle Edition] for only $0.99. You can buy it here.

Connect with Liv!

I can be found on-line at all hours of the day and night:

  • My website & blog: livrancourt.com
  • Facebook: liv.rancourt
  • Twitter: @LivRancourt

Stop by. We’ll have fun!

 


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