In 1904, the Wyoming Tribune even published a letter from Santa himself requesting letters from Wyoming children so he could hear all of their wishes at once.
The holiday season is upon us and there is no better time to take a look back at Wyoming’s holiday history!
Letter found in Laramie’s post office in 1898 and published in the
The earliest mention of the jolly man in red appeared in the Christmas Eve issue of The Cheyenne Leader back in 1868 in a poem entitled Owed to Christmas by A Young Lady, which advertises products available in a local store. Since then, Santa has continued to be used in marketing and advertising for Wyoming businesses of all kinds during the holiday season for the past over century and a half. These advertisements give us a peek at what was being bought and sold back in the 1800s and 1900s, but another type of column gives us a window to the past from another perspective—letters to Santa Claus published in the newspaper.
Annie Hoyt’s letter in The Wyoming Press, December 17, 1898
Writing a letter to Santa Claus is a time-honored tradition that dates back over more than a hundred years. In fact, “Dear Santa” letters from over 125 years ago appear in the Wyoming Newspaper Collection! On December 17, 1898, Laramie Republican published a letter to Santa found in the Laramie post office in which the author requested “a book, some toys, paints, and a warship”. On the same day, The Wyoming Press published a letter written by eight-year-old Annie Hoyt of Evanston, Wyoming, who listed her holiday requests, wished Santa a merry Christmas, and reminded him to bring her sister presents, adding a postscript assuring Santa she was a good girl.
Ralph Piper’s letter Wyoming Tribune, December 16, 1903, warning Santa that he was quarantined with smallpox.
Publishing a “Dear Santa” column featuring children’s letters to Santa had become an annual custom by the early twentieth century. Most letters requested fairly commonplace items such as dolls, rocking horses, and candy, while others included more unusual requests including “a pumpkin with two holes,” with one letter even inviting Santa to “walk right in” to the sender’s home to deliver presents. One memorable letter written to Santa by Ralph Piper of Cheyenne, Wyoming, was published in the Wyoming Tribune in 1903, requesting a pair of skates, a train set, nuts, and candy. In his letter, Ralph let Santa know that although he had been quarantined for smallpox for the past six weeks, “Dick Murray has fumigated,” and it was safe for Santa to leave something at his door. (There was indeed a smallpox outbreak during this time.)
Esther Camery’s letter in The Lusk Standard, December 12, 1919
The tradition continued throughout the first couple of decades of the 1900s. Children sometimes completed this fun writing exercise as a school assignment, listing their teacher’s name along with theirs in the signature of their letter. One particularly poignant epistle was written by nine-year-old Esther Camery of Hat Creek, Wyoming, and published in The Lusk Standard on December 12, 1919. With World War One having ended only one year before, Esther was thoughtful enough to petition Santa to “not forget the little boys and girls of Europe” and ask him to bring them “food and good, warm clothes”. She made a specific supplication on behalf of the “little German boys and girls” and beseeched Santa to not punish them for the “unkind” actions of their rulers.
Funny letters submitted by University of Wyoming students to The Branding Iron
Humorous letters from college students were published in University of Wyoming’s publication, The Branding Iron, starting in the mid-1920s and continued until the last part of the twentieth century. Cheeky correspondents asked Santa for dates, dresses, money for room and board, good grades, and loads of essays for their professors to grade over the holiday break, in addition to more serious requests including world peace. One brazen student in 1960 asked Santa to bring various political figures of the time razors, trips to Disneyland, and “first place in the unemployment line” for Christmas, as well as requesting a winning upcoming football season for the Wyoming Cowboys, or at least victory over Colorado State University. Another student in 1988 Santa to benefit the whole world be eliminating certain talk shows and game shows. This thoughtful student’s letter was published in the Branding Iron on December 7, 1988.
With the advent of email and text messaging, the frequency of handwritten letters to Santa may have decreased, but it’s fascinating to look back on the annals of yesteryear to remember, laugh, cry, and learn.
The Wyoming Newspaper Collection is an amazing resource for anyone seeking a new perspective on Wyoming history with primary sources. Check out our collection of nearly 5,000,000 pages of past issues of Wyoming newspapers.
The Wyoming State Library wishes you all happy and safe holiday season, a great end to the old year, and a fantastic start to the new year!