Once again, the internet has revolutionized an industry. This time, it's the Santa Claus industry.
We all know that children traditionally write letters to Santa Claus, telling Santa they've been good little boys and girls and asking for specific items like a new pair of skates or a mountain of Dragonball Z paraphernalia.
Well, unbeknownst to me, Santa writes back.
Before the internet, parents could call a company which specialized in letters from Santa. They would give the names of their kids and a couple of items on their list, and the kids would get a customized letter from Santa telling them to be good, that he had received the list, and that he would try his best.
Well, since the internet has made "mass customization" possible, the letters from Santa industry seems to be booming. Last year, searches for letters to Santa and letters from Santa were split fairly evenly. This year, letters from Santa are clearly more popular. Last week letters from Santa got more searches than letters to Santa by a ratio of roughly 5-to-2.
There are sites for both types of letters online. Some sites let kids send a letter to Santa with a simple form. If you want your child to get more than just a letter from old St. Nick, companies sell packages that also contain goodies for kids like activities, games, and craft materials. And of course, Santa is fully digital: your kids can get letters through U.S. mail or e-mail.
How customized are the letters? Well, as this site points out, "Santa keeps a very accurate database of all the addresses of children he sends letters to. If there is more than 1 child at an address receiving a letter, Santa will personalize each letter on different stationery so each child will receive a unique letter."
One more interesting note: while requests for just Santa Claus far outnumber requests for simply Santa, there are very few requests for letters to or from Santa Claus. Apparently, when writing Santa, no last name is necessary.
