DEAR SANTA

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2011/1221/1224309341785.html

Dear Santa Letter sent 100 years ago found up chimney

The Irish Times - Wednesday, December 21, 2011

The 100-year-old letter to Santa found in the chimney of a Dublin house.Photograph: Eric Luke

MICHAEL O'REGAN and PAMELA DUNCAN
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."
Ownership of the house changed over the decades, with the Byrne family moving there in 1961, but the letter survived.
"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."
The letter remained remarkably intact given the passage of time and was only slightly burned from fires set in the house over the years.
As well as the requests for gifts from Santa the letter also contains drawings and a message of "Good Luck" to Santa from the children.
According to the 1911 census there were three children living at the address in the year in which the letter was written.
The youngest of them, Hannah, who was 10 at the time, and Fred (presumably short for Alfred) who was seven, fit in with the initials on the letter.
A third child, a 13-year-old called Lily, is also listed.
The Howard family were all born in England, including parents Fred Hamer Howard, an "under manager" in a plumber merchants, and his wife Mary Elizabeth. They listed their religion as Church of Ireland.

NB. more on this story... who was the author?

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THE KOALA THAT SAVED CHRISTMAS

                                                                                                     

" It's nearly Christmas, it's nearly Christmas... " called the parrots as they flew from tree to tree...

The call was soon taken up throughout the bush... "It's nearly Christmas.." called the possums, as they settled down for their nap. 

The bush was full of excited animals...well, mostly, all except for the sleepy koala. "Christmas? What's Christmas? That's for people, not for us... Be quiet, I need to sleep." The koala settled down on a limb and went to sleep.

"Don't worry about him, " said the kangaroo "he's always grumpy. I like Christmas. I like hearing the children laugh."

"So do I " said the wombat, as he waddled away to find a nice log to lean on. "Why last Christmas, I even found a little bit of pudding that one of the children dropped in the garden. It made such a change from digging up the vegetables."

The kangaroo laughed...

The next morning, the parrots were calling out a new message.. "it's Christmas Eve, Santa's coming tonight, Santa's coming tonight."

The possums woke when they heard that.."We love Santa and the reindeer, especially the one with the shiny red nose. "Not fair" said the kangaroo, " you are always awake at night and it's easy for you to see Santa. Sometimes, I fall asleep before he comes."

Koala heard the chatter and grumbled about all the noise... he wanted to sleep even more. "If you didn't eat so many gum leaves, you wouldn't be so sleepy" called the parrots, "or so grumpy ! "  At that, all the animals laughed. They spent the day tidying up the bush and picking wild flowers to decorate their homes, all except for koala. 

 The time went  by quickly and it was soon almost midnight... lots of the animals were still awake, listening for Santa... 

"Here he comes, here he comes, I can hear his sleigh bells" called the parrots, forgetting how tired they were. They were all so excited... but suddenly, the bells sounded really strange and then they heard a crashing sound.

The cry went up... " Santa, Santa, where's Santa? "

But there was no sound, nothing but the animals crying... till koala woke and called out, asking what all the fuss was about. The kangaroo and the parrots and the possums all answered at once "Santa's crashed, we can't find Santa". 

"Well, go look for him" said the koala... "We can't " said the parrots... "we can't see in the dark, and we're so sleepy."

"I can see in the dark" said possum," but what could I do? I don't know what to do."

Koala muttered... he knew what to do, firstly, he'd find Santa, then he would see how he could help. It would be better than listening to all the animals fussing. While they argued about what should be done, koala climbed to the highest tree and went from tree to tree, looking for Santa and calling out. At first, he couldn't see a thing except bush.. he called out to Santa, but it was silent.. then he heard a call, "over here. We're over here, we're alright, but can you help us?"

" Darn" said the koala, " now I have to help after all."

 Down he went and saw Santa putting a lot of toys back in his big red sack. Lots of them had names on them, but koala didn't know how to read and there really wasn't much moonlight. "Oh, koala, am I glad to see you. Rudolph's light went out in his nose... he hasn't had enough carrots to eat and he can't see in the dark and we crashed into a tree. We really need to find a light or at least some way of being able to see to fly, and quickly, or none of the boys and girls will get their presents."

Now koala was often grumpy, but he couldn't let the children be sad. "I can help" he said quietly. "Did you say you would help, oh, thank you" called Santa... Santa was surprised when koala jumped on Rudolphs's back, clinging on and whispering in his ear. "That will work" said Rudolph, laughing. Away they went, up in the sky and flew right over all the animals in the bush.

"Did you see that?" called the possums.. "Koala just flew past." " Koala can't fly.."  "No, koala can't fly.." "He can now" said possum " and he's on Rudolph's back."  Rudolph did a circle over the animals and off they went... flying all over the world and delivering all the children's presents.

The animals all fell asleep while waiting to find out where koala was. When  they woke, koala was sitting in his favourite tree, munching away on gum leaves. They all asked what had happened and koala leaned back, made himself comfortable and told all the animals the story. Kangaroo and wombat started laughing... "Well, koala, I guess you were the one who saved Christmas". 

" I guess I was the one " said a happy koala... "I guess I did save Christmas."

Chris Goopy (c) 2009