Dear Santa

Last week my students all watched a 1930’s Christmas cartoon by Disney called The Night Before Christmas. Disney’s Silly Symphony cartoons from the early to mid twentieth century are prefect for my classes for several reasons. Firstly, they’re all pretty short, only 6-8 minutes, so we can watch them and still have time to do an activity. And secondly, they have little to no talking. As music and pictures are truly international languages, the students understand the videos regardless of their English level, which is always important in the multi-leveled, Chinese classroom.

In the movie the little girl writes a letter to “Santy” asking for a few things, like a doll and a rocking horse. After watching and talking about the cartoon, the students in my classes wrote letters to Santa as well. I had a template letter made up and students filled in things like if they were good or bad this year and what they would like Santa to bring them. While I wasn’t able to read them all, the following is by far the most interesting letter I saw.

Dear Santa,
How are you? I am fine. This year I have been very good. I listened to my father and helped my grandmother clean the toilet when it was very dirty. I would like a lovely puppy for Christmas.
Thank you and Merry Christmas!
From,
Melody

The more I think about it, the more I think Melody must be incredibly intelligent. Not only would her letter certainly catch Santa’s eye, but also would put her securely on the good list. Nobody likes to clean the toilet when it is relatively clean, not to mention when it is “very dirty.” If I was Santa, I would definitely give a dirty-toilet-cleaning-child a “lovely puppy” if she wanted one. Good thinking, Melody!