100-Year-Old Letter to Santa Found in Irish Chimney
December 21, 2011 at 5:23 PM Leave a comment
Ok, it’s break time folks and in keeping with the season, we have this:
Photo: Eric Luke
IT MAY have been slightly scorched over the years but a letter to Santa written 100 years ago, which was later discovered in a Dublin fireplace, has the magic of Christmas written all over it.
On Christmas Eve 1911, a brother and sister, who signed their names, “A or H Howard”, penned their personally designed letter to Santa with their requests for gifts and a good luck message at their home in Oaklands Terrace, Terenure (or Terurnure, as the children spelled it) in Dublin.
They placed it in the chimney of the fireplace in the front bedroom so that Santa would see it as he made his way into the Howard household in the early hours of the morning.
The letter was discovered by the house’s current occupant, John Byrne, when he was installing central heating in 1992.
Since then, he has retained it as a souvenir of another time and place but with the stamp of childhood innocence which still exists today.
The message to Santa was warm but explicit.
“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.”
“At that time, the fireplaces were made of brick with a shelf on either side,” said John Byrne who works in the building industry.
“The letter was found on one of the shelves.”
Such simple desires compared to what kids want these days. And I love the “Good Luck!”
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