Somewhere in your house there's a letter to Santa. It's in crayon, possibly glitter. One line just says "a lego deth star", and nobody's quite sure which Death Star that means.
This Christmas you can send it to Santa through Giftwhale. Your child posts it and watches it fly to the North Pole. You end up with every wish as a real gift on their Christmas list. Here's how it works.
1. Set it up before you call them over
Go to giftwhale.com/santa (it's also under Gifts in the menu) and choose which child the letter's from. Tick the box to say you're their parent, then hand over the phone.
2. They post it to Santa
All they see is Santa's mailbox. They take a photo of their letter and watch it fly off to the North Pole while the elves read it. There's nothing about shops or prices, so it's fine to do this with them sitting right next to you.
Once it's arrived, a grown-up presses and holds a button for a couple of seconds to carry on. A quick tap does nothing, which is exactly what a curious five-year-old will try first.
3. Check what we read
Each wish shows up in their own words, next to what we think they meant, so "pokymon cards" becomes Pokémon cards. Anything we weren't sure of is flagged. Tap a wish to fix it, or add one we missed.
Wishes no shop sells go in a different pile: a puppy, snow, a baby brother. They sit under "Only Santa can wrap these". If one of them really is on the cards, one tap turns it into a proper gift.
4. Pick the gifts
We find each wish on Amazon and give you a few options to choose from. If you'd rather buy it somewhere else, search your favourite shop and paste the link in.
5. Add them to their list
Add everything to their Christmas list in one go. If they haven't got one yet, we'll start it. Each gift keeps what they actually wrote: "In Oliver's words: a lego deth star". I suspect grandparents will comment on that more than anything else.
Share the list and the family can reserve what they're buying, so nobody doubles up. Your child can't see who's getting what.
Good to know
We only use the photo to read the wishes, and it's deleted after 30 days. Letters are saved, so you can come back later to fix something. Santa's mailroom is open until 24 December, free as always. Letters go from the website for now, and the iPhone app has a card on its Home screen that takes you there.
If the elves get something spectacularly wrong, tell me. I'd genuinely like to know.
