Love From Santa .x.

Love From Santa is a business owned and run by ‘me’ … me being, Pippa Lester. I’ve discovered that as a parent you are able to believe again in things like fairies, wizards & Santa, through the eyes of your children. I find that so special, and so fun.

I’m one of those adults who still looks to the sky on Christmas Eve to see that streak of light and to hear the jingle of those bells (and I know I am not the only adult who does this). I’ve always been a believer! With two little girls and this magical Santa business, Christmas is a pretty exciting time of year for our family.

Love from Santa has always been about the magic and delight of Santa. We just love that. For us the wonder of the imagination and the belief in all the magical things out there is just so precious. We really want to help children hold onto childhood for as long as possible. Our vision is for Love from Santa to grow to be wonderful place of inspiraiton and delight for all of Santa’s helpers, in every part of the role we play – it’s such an important job we have bestowed upon us.

At Love From Santa we take everything we do very seriously, this is more than a business for us. Our role is to bring the little dreams of Santa to life … and we work hard to do that in a way that is always delightful, unique, clever & special.

Why do people love us?

We have been told that people choose our products because they are delightfully  beautiful and because when they receive them they are so impressed by the attention to detail and care taken in the creation of the finished product. We’ve been told that our personalised letters from Santa are loved because they are focused on the spirit of Christmas and not on presents – so many people play that back to us. We have many repeat people we write to every year, they love us for the genuine, non-gimmicky magic we deliver.  We hold onto this and keep it at the core of what we do. We’d love to hear your thoughts or feedback at any time too …

Stocking fillers

Stocking filler feature #1: Toxin Free Crayons

Tess is the head creator at Funny Little Things, a boutique selling Toxin Free Crayons. She creates natural crayons from scratch to inspire imagination, fun and learning in kids at any age. The perfect stocking filler for Santa this year!

A few years ago, Tess says “she was alarmed to discover that most commercial crayons are made from paraffin; a by-product of petroleum and that recent studies have shown that some commercial crayons have tested positive for nasties like asbestos.”

Not only did Tess find it scary to think of young children potentially ingesting these, but she was also was concerned about the environmental impact. So she set about working on developing a formula for crayons using all natural, sustainably sourced waxes and non-toxic pigments.

“I have continued to refine my formula through trial and error and product testing and I am so pleased with my product – a safe, natural crayon that produces vibrant hues, is hardy in warm little hands and has minimal environmental impact.”

Childhood should be all about play and having fun. Funny Little Things’ crayons come in a range of fun shapes and sizes to inspire imagination and play. Tess says she loves seeing the joy on children’s faces when they discover the butterfly or car they hold in their hand is actually a crayon! Through play also comes learning and these crayons are a great secret weapon to help kids learn shapes, colours and creative thinking.

Why did you call your boutique Funny Little Things? Tess answers “I’m a shortie, only about 5 foot 2 (I’ve always wished for a few extra inches), my husband on the other hand is 6 foot 4” and has always endearingly called me ‘funny little thing’. I thought this would be a good name for my crayons once I started making them as they are bright and fun little things designed to add joy!

Order your crayons here before they run out!

How many keepsakes have you made in 2015, how much time have you left?!

Sheesh not only is it just about Christmas, its nearly the end of the year too – how many keepsakes for 2015 have you put away and collected for your children?

Shhh … like me, is it none, well not in an ordered organised fashion away (I’m sure there are few stuffed in the cupboards somewhere)?!

I know you are busy, I know there’s a lot on so I am not going to waffle here. I’m going to tell you we have the perfect ten minute $11 solution. Log on to LOVEFROMSANTA and order one of our Christmas Santa letters for your child … its the perfect keepsake for the year because it contains 9 pieces of personal information about your child’s year carefully crafted together in the form of a letter. You wont regret it, I promise.

Truthfully I had never thought about a Santa letter as a keepsake, but after some of the amazing feedback recently, it seems like a bit of a no brainer now. Love how that happens sometimes.

Help us tick one more thing off your list for the year!

Did you know writing Santa letters is good for your child’s development?

Christmas time is a time for imagination, wonder & magic and of taking some time to set up traditions and rituals for your family. For me in my family writing to Santa letters (or Father Christmas letters as mum referred to him) was always something we sat down to do in the build up to Christmas as children. We were seated around the kitchen table, paper, coloured pens and bucket loads of ambition about what we would write and say. I think poor Mum ended up doing most of the work, but it didn’t feel that way! We weren’t lucky enough back then to get replies to our Santa letters – he was “far too busy” to write replies. But the enjoyment we got from actually sitting down to write the letter and then sealing it safely up seemed like plenty enough for the time (we are talking before internet time here!)

When I grew up I had a pen pal in the Canada (Zoe), we wrote to each other probably about three times a year – but it felt so frequent! And the delight of finding in the mail a special letter addressed to me from someone in a far off land, someone I could only imagine, was well … it was pretty special.

Writing letters as a child is not only fun, writing letters is actually part of a child’s key development – psychologists and neuroscientists say it the links between handwriting and a child’s broader educational development run deep indeed helping with read skills, idea generation and the ability to remember information better. See this article form the New York times for more information about this.(*http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/03/science/whats-lost-as-handwriting-fades.html?_r=0)

To use a term that shows I have aged … “Nowadays” in this instant, digitised, and fast paced world there is seldom time or the need for letter writing anymore – facetime, sykpe, texts, emails, whats app and other instant forms of communication all seem to out weigh ‘snail mail’ communication. Its funny though because even as an adult I still delight in checking the mail every day and seeing if maybe today there is something personal in there for me … I don’t think the wonder ever wears off for some us!

So I say lets not loose the magic in letters at Christmas time – lets harness it for all its worth and the specialness it brings. Lets keep this tradition alive. Santa letters here we come. I’m in.

And if you are going to put in all that effort in writing to Santa its worth making sure your reply is off a top notch standard. So if you are interested in truly beautiful, magical and very cleverly written and designed Santa letters (either as a reply to one written or as an unexpected delight in the mail) then order a letter from Love From Santa today. We would be honoured to sprinkle you with Christmas time with letter magical-ness (however big or small you are!).

Magical Christmas traditions …

 Baking cookies for Santa, carol singing with your friends at the top of your lungs, writing Santa letters, hanging your Christmas stockings on the 10th of December, finding the orange at the bottom of the stocking (or the lump of coal!), leaving empty Santa sacks under the tree, BBQ on the beach Christmas Eve or dressing your dog up as Santa and parading him in all his glory?! So many wonderful and special things we all do to make this time of the year magical and memorable.

Share with us some of your special Christmas traditions.

We will be giving away 20 FREE SANTA LETTERS* to families who share with us their most magical Christmas traditions. We would LOVE to hear from you. Simply share them on our Facebook page or  email us at at [email protected] to be in with a change to WIN!

And if you need some inspiration, or just a light hearted magical Christmas read check out some of the most bizarre & delightful christmas traditions from around the world in this cool article .

I’ve list the ones that tickle our Fancies the most at Love From Santa …

From Norway:

It is believed in Norway that on Christmas Eve, witches roam the skies along with other mischievous spirits. Since a witch’s prime mode of transportation is a broom, families hide all of their cleaning supplies attached to sticks, to stop the witches from stealing them.

From Iceland:

Why have one Santa Claus when you can believe in 13? That’s what children do in Iceland, where the “13 Yule Lads” are said to come to town two weeks before Christmas, and leave after the holiday. Once depicted as mischievous, they have taken on a more benevolent role in recent years.

From the Ukraine:

In the Ukraine, there’s a legend that a poor widow found a Christmas tree growing in her yard during the summer months. Her children were thrilled to finally have a tree, but she didn’t have money to decorate it. When the family woke up Christmas morning, a spider had spun a web around the tree, decorating it for the family.

When the youngest child opened the window on Christmas day and light hit the web, the web turned to silver and gold. Stemming from that legend, now people in the Ukraine hide spider webs in their trees and whoever finds it Christmas day will have good luck that year.

*T&Cs – Winners will be selected based on the levels of ‘magic’ in their tradition shared, they will notified at the end of the week. Letters will be awarded to all the children within the immediate family – so everyone recieves a little bit of Santa love! P&P costs for any international destinations will added at checkout and applied after free santa letter discount code, free santa letter code valid until the end of November 2015.  All material shared with us may be used as “quotes” in our newsletter and related communication materials with our partners.