Letters from santa

[Sarahkay1]

Hi, I'm a foster carer, currently caring for 4 and 8 year old brothers. This is their first Christmas with me and we have just finished writing their letters to Santa. Last year I paid £5 for a letter from santa for a placement that was completely inappropriate for a looked after child referring a great deal to mummy and daddy telling Santa they'd been good etc... This year I was thinking of using the royal mails free service however has anyone had letters from the royal mail in the past?

A letter from Santa would make Christmas more magical, but a letter from Santa talking about their parents would not. I was thinking of writing a letter to go in with the boys letters explaining that they are in foster care please don't reference parents in the letter... Do you think that's necessary?

Thanks
Sarah

[ReallyTired]

Maybe you could post your letter to a kind mumsnetter who could write a letter to the two boys which is more appriopiate. I would write the letter and send it to you for free if you like, however my letter writing skills are not the greatest and I am a total stranger who knows nothing about you or the boys. Is there anyone in real life who could send a letter to the boys? How savy are the boys? A Hemel Hempstead postmark might ruin the affect if I sent it.

[wonderpants]

I made the pnp Santa videos with my FC and they were fine and appropriate.
I don't stress too much about references to parents as I kind of see it a bit like shared care. But my FC have all had regular contact with parents and have been in short term care on ICO.
It depends on the relationship you have with the parents I suppose!

[Twopots]

We have had letters from the Royal Mail they are fab and the kids loved them x

[delilabell]

The nspcc do ones that you can tailor I think?

[Iguessyourestuckwithme]

Can you not write it ?

[2PurpleCrocs]

I write my own. Download a Christmassy border template then just write a brief letter tailored to each child. It's very handy for explaining why Santa cannot buy them the real life dinosaur/taser/trip to DisneyWorld they've asked for too...!

[Sarahkay1]

the heart breaking thing is their lists of what they want are minuscule! they where looking threw the argos catalogue for inspiration on what to ask santa for and where as most kids would be 'i want that, and that and that...' they where more....'oh i want that one.... on no i think i want that one instead, or maybe i should ask for that one' they where only picking one or two things that they wanted to ask for santa to bring them. on birthdays parents have only bought them one present each so i get the impression that to them christmas and birthday is one gift and one gift only.... where as my family have always gone big on christmas. still hopefully that means i can get a bit of a layin by giving them a gift in bed since they dont go downstairs without me (there choice)

[Uponastarr]

The Royal Mail one is lovely. We did letters in October half term and one of my foster children got her reply this week, the other hasn't arrived yet but hopefully it'll come soon. She's 10 so not sure on believing but as it's the first time they've written to Santa I encouraged her to give it a go, she was so excited to get her 'Royal Mail - santa' letter. It was all about the excitement of xmas and leVing out a mince pie and trying to be good, no mention on mum or dad (although she only read part of it out to me)
Go for it. (Don't forget to put child's name and address on the back of the letter tho 🎅🏻)

[Sarahkay1]

Thanks :) we went to see Santa today... First time they have met Santa and they were completely in awe. Been extremely over the top hyper ever since tho.

[FannyFanakapan]

sarah, I'll happily send you a letter from the north pole...! PM me if you want.

[Cassimin]

Our school did one last year. You just had to give them all of the info you wanted, presents asked for, relevant people, pets etc.
maybe you could suggest it to the school it's a good fund raiser.