Most kids who send letters to Santa Claus write theirs by hand — printing or, more so in earlier years, cursive writing.
Cute Santa letters are often shown off to family and friends and saved for years as keepsakes of yesteryear.
Some minority of kids type or keyboard their Santa letters. No one knows for sure the number of keyboarding kids Santa hears from because no money has been appropriated for a federal study. With President Trump and waste-cutter Elon Musk coming into office with their Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), there likely will not be any funding for a study of how Santa letters are generated.
Why would a kid who still believes in Santa Claus go on the keyboard to compose his letter? No federal study has been conducted of this vital question. My own guess is that the keyboarding kids are comprised of:
Smart kids. They know keyboarding and they will be using that skill in school.
Kids whose parent(s) is/are a keyboarder, using it for letter writing and document-generating of their own. Kids see, kids do.
Kids who want to show Santa how smart they are.
Kids who figured out that a typed letter will stand out, and Santa will be more likely to read it and heed it.
One smart kid in Montgomery saved his typed letter to Santa from 50 years ago. That does not surprise me, because that kid is now the unofficial historian of Alabama, the collector of all manner of Alabama paraphernalia to help us remember the decades past. It is David Azbell, writer and developer of a museum of Alabama items of yesteryear.
David typed his letter to Santa Claus 50 years ago. At that time, there was no keyboarding on a computer – that was not developed yet. He had only old-fashioned typing on an old-fashioned typewriter. You don’t see many of those nowadays.
Young David came by typing honestly. His father was Joe Azbell, writer and editor for the Montgomery Advertiser. Joe Azbell wrote and published the day-to-day history of Alabama’s state capital, and it was often on your front page. He did it all pre-computer. He typed.
Newspaper reporter Joe Azbell teaching his son David to type:
The Azbells had an old-fashioned typewriter. Young David got a hold of it (pronounced "a-holt") and typed his letter to Santa.
Notice that young David’s typing and/or spelling were not yet what they would later become. Here is my close translation:
dear santa clase i wood like a talking veiw master and a play school compter and star trek comaters with some supris i dont have a chimnay I,ll leve you some cookies and milk sign david azbell
David's present-day post on Facebook says:
It has been 50 years, and I’m still waiting for the cottonpickin’ Star Trek communicators that Santa never brought. And, yes, I was the child who typed my letter to Santa each year rather than writing it by hand.
For fascinating or weird items about Alabama history, go to David Azbell's election collection, go here.
Jim ‘Zig’ Zeigler writes about Alabama’s people, places, events, groups and prominent deaths. He is a former Alabama Public Service Commissioner and State Auditor. You can reach him for comments at ZeiglerElderCare@yahoo.com.
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