Letter to Santa from 1911, found in a Dublin chimney

This letter to Santa was written in 1911, and stashed in the chimney of a house in Dublin, from which it was recovered in 1992 by the house's current occupant, John Byrne. The letter, written by "A or H Howard" (a brother-sister team) survived remarkably well, and is very lovely.

“I want a baby doll and a waterproof with a hood and a pair of gloves and a toffee apple and a gold penny and a silver sixpence and a long toffee.”

Dear Santa Letter sent 100 years ago found up chimney

(Photo: Eric Luke)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: History • ireland • Kids • xmas

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefan_e_jones/ Stefan Jones

Impossible! Santa Claus was invented in 1964 by Rankin Bass for their “Rudolph” Christmas Special, a show sponsored by a conglomerate of profit-hungry toy manufacturers.

Before then, children spent Christmas huddling under their beds in terror of being dragged off by Krampus.
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ZZIFOR3WJOAXXDJSXUUU2UE77Q Travis
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father_Christmas
  
  Please read this article in it’s entirety and you will see that you are misinformed. Merry Christmas.
  - grib
    
    But yet his reference to Krampus implies he is informed. Sarcasm maybe? ;)
    
    Happy ho ho!
    - http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefan_e_jones/ Stefan Jones
      
      No, satire. I’m mocking the urban myth about Santa being invented by Coca-Cola.
      - http://vincenzoravina.tumblr.com/ Vincenzo Ravina
        
        They did decide the colour of his clothing though, right?
      - grib
        
        Well it’s a bit of both, but I don’t want to get into a debate about the difference between satire and sarcasm.
        
        vravina: Here’s the answer to your question if you’re interested.
        
        http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/santa/cocacola.asp
Bill Walsh

Like bitch, it’s 1911, where’s your fucking please and thank yous?
- cdh1971
  
  Bill…go to bed.
  - Bill Walsh
    
    Never.
    - cdh1971
      
      Fair enough!
      
      Bed…over-rated it is.
thedragontrack

I love this story :)

Did you see that the Irish Times found her family? Or rather, her family found the Irish Times. Hannah’s son, Victor, recognised his mother when the story went viral…
‘Mr Bartlem said his mother had been extremely creative, excelling at various forms of needlework and later at woodwork. She was also an expert baker of cakes and other confectionery, which may go some way to explaining her toffee-themed letter to Mr Claus’ http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/1222/1224309380171.html
- franko
  
  nice find – thanks! it also mentions that it’s just a letter from her, and that she added the “A or H” because she went by “Annie” and also “Hannah”, so NOT a brother-sister team letter.
- http://halfbakedmaker.org Robert Baruch
  
  Perhaps we could send the family a toffee apple and a waterproof with a hood. And a note saying, “Sorry package late, apply head office refund shipping.”
David Woodruff

Twas the night before christmas was published in 1823. Be nice.
niktemadur

“a toffee apple and a gold penny and a silver sixpence and a long toffee”

Absolutely charming. Best Christmas post so far, Mr Doctorow!

It seems a trip to the Toffee Shop is in order, maybe a brief stopover at the candlestick maker’s. To paraphrase Stephen Merchant to Karl Pilkington: “Do these kids live in Narnia?”
- http://twitter.com/bazimmerman Brad Zimmerman
  
  I liked your post because it was both relevant and involved the Great Round-Headed One.
  - niktemadur
    
    Thanks. You know, opportunities like these can and should be seized!
    However, in my haste I forgot to include the cobbler in the errands.
voiceinthedistance

Presumably Santa wasn’t being careful enough, and this fell out of his pocket on his way out? Not like him to be careless like that. Perhaps the lumbago was acting up and he was a little distracted.
MichaelDalin

this is why I love boing boing
futnuh

My 4 year-old has placed a large wrapped box of his toys under the tree … because apparently Santa accepts trade-ins. I will have to wait until late Saturday night to read any letter contained within.
- Ashen Victor
  
  Watch out! It´s booby trapped!
  - http://twitter.com/Listener43 Listener43
    
    Exploding purple dye is notoriously hard to clean up.
    
    Ah, the Christmas Eve memories ….
quarterman

What a terrific find! I especially like the “Good Luck” and the additional artistic details she added. Also, just bookmarked the Irish Times.
Alex Bergus

We put my daughters letters to santa up the chimney just like my parents did, but we don’t stash them oh no because farther christmas is magic. You just throw them on the fire and the up draft takes them up the chimney or they just burn, it doesn’t matter either way (its that magic bit) I should think this went up on an up draft and lodged rather than being placed in the chimney for santa to find.
- Bodhipaksa
  
  “It doesn’t matter”! It was of vital importance in my childhood that the letter flew up the “lum” (Scottish for chimney) rather than just sat on the coals and burned up. I’m surprised you ever got any presents.
garyg2

My daughter places her letter in the grate (real fireplace but no fire…) and I have to remember to retrieve and hide it before she checks.

She found her letter in my dressing gown pocket once so we now have an additional component to the mythology: Santa returns the letter to your parents so they know what Santas getting you and don’t double up on presents…
ROSSINDETROIT

Once at a friend’s house while cleaning out the vents in the fireplace we found an elementary school field trip Permission Slip from 1950, perfectly preserved. We gave it to Ma and she immediately got on the horn to chew out her 50 year old son for not turning it in. Ma was like that.
xzzy

I dig how doodling hasn’t changed all that much in 100 years.
http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/TGZ75URQ6DKTCNXV3RV36ZKALQ Matthew

It was nice of Santa to leave that souvenir behind as he flew back up the chimney!
someguyyouvenevermet

There’s an update to the story. Her son has come forward: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/1222/1224309380171.html?via=mr
pauldrye

Congratulations to Mr. Byrne for finding this in his chimney. I loved his work on the Fantastic Four back in the day. Ahem.
exoskeletor

Crap, we put all our kids’ Santa letters on the graves of our ancestors to be delivered by the night dragon, or devoured by death if they were bad. This though is a much sweeter tradition. And with toffee too!
exoskeletor

Oh, and “Good Luck”, Santa!
David Smith

A Wonderful Thing indeed, and just in time for Christmas.
Palomino

Cory, BTW, the petition is at 24,700,,, Lookin good sexy petition!
ryuchi

Note that the letter is padded with a frecquency: it has the waves of a carrier-signal written all the way through :D