Comments on: Letter to Santa from 1911, found in a Dublin chimney

By: ryuchi

ryuchi — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 04:35:00 +0000

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

By: Palomino

Palomino — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 04:22:00 +0000

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

By: niktemadur

niktemadur — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 22:07:00 +0000

Thanks. You know, opportunities like these can and should be seized!
However, in my haste I forgot to include the cobbler in the errands.

By: grib

grib — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 21:12:00 +0000

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

By: Vincenzo Ravina

Vincenzo Ravina — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 20:09:00 +0000

They did decide the colour of his clothing though, right?

By: Stefan Jones

Stefan Jones — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 20:04:00 +0000

No, satire. I’m mocking the urban myth about Santa being invented by Coca-Cola.

By: Robert Baruch

Robert Baruch — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 18:32:00 +0000

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.”

By: David Smith

David Smith — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 17:24:00 +0000

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

By: Listener43

Listener43 — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 17:01:00 +0000

Exploding purple dye is notoriously hard to clean up.

Ah, the Christmas Eve memories ….

By: exoskeletor

exoskeletor — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 16:25:00 +0000

Oh, and “Good Luck”, Santa!

By: exoskeletor

exoskeletor — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 16:24:00 +0000

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!

By: Bodhipaksa

Bodhipaksa — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 15:55:00 +0000

“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.

By: pauldrye

pauldrye — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 15:53:00 +0000

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

By: someguyyouvenevermet

someguyyouvenevermet — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 15:12:00 +0000

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

By: Matthew

Matthew — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:55:00 +0000

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

By: franko

franko — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:42:00 +0000

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.

By: xzzy

xzzy — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:31:00 +0000

I dig how doodling hasn’t changed all that much in 100 years.

By: ROSSINDETROIT

ROSSINDETROIT — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 13:57:00 +0000

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.

By: Brad Zimmerman

Brad Zimmerman — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 13:46:00 +0000

I liked your post because it was both relevant and involved the Great Round-Headed One.

By: garyg2

garyg2 — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 13:03:00 +0000

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…

By: Alex Bergus

Alex Bergus — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 12:12:00 +0000

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.

By: quarterman

quarterman — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 09:53:00 +0000

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

By: Ashen Victor

Ashen Victor — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 09:44:00 +0000

Watch out! It´s booby trapped!

By: futnuh

futnuh — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 09:39:00 +0000

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.

By: grib

grib — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 09:30:00 +0000

But yet his reference to Krampus implies he is informed. Sarcasm maybe? ;)

Happy ho ho!

By: MichaelDalin

MichaelDalin — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 09:19:00 +0000

this is why I love boing boing

By: voiceinthedistance

voiceinthedistance — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 08:47:00 +0000

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.

By: Travis

Travis — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 08:47:00 +0000

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.

By: niktemadur

niktemadur — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 08:37:00 +0000

“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?”

By: cdh1971

cdh1971 — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 08:30:00 +0000

Fair enough!

Bed…over-rated it is.