Is what kids are asking from Santa this year any different from what children asked for a hundred years ago? R.L. Ripples @TweetsofOld can help answer that question. The Twitter account posts “one-line brevities” from old newspaper clippings in an attempt to open our eyes to how people lived years and years ago. Recently, the account tweeted several Christmas wishes from kids at the turn of the 20th century. One thing that certainly hasn’t changed is how wonderfully innocent and hopeful children can be.
While our little ones today might be hoping for a video game, iPhone, or virtual assistant, kids back then kept things far more simple:
Dear Mr. Santa: Please send one Goat and Buck Board. I don't want much but what I want I want badly. So act accordingly. -Peyton
Virginia 1895— R.L. Ripples (@TweetsofOld) December 12, 2017
Some of them showed selflessness that can sometimes be hard to come by today:
Dear Santa: Bring mamma a new dress. and papa a new suit. and me a hundred dollars worth of peanuts. so I guess that is all. Russell
Missouri 1919— R.L. Ripples (@TweetsofOld) December 6, 2017
And others, not so much:
Dear Santa: Just bring me everything that you can get your hands on. Be sure not to forget. Well, that is all I want. Alice Texas 1900
— R.L. Ripples (@TweetsofOld) December 5, 2017
Some requests are completely heartbreaking:
Dear Santee, Pleas ask God to give us back our mamma and you can give our presents to somebody else. We just only want her. -Harriette
Nebraska 1901— R.L. Ripples (@TweetsofOld) December 11, 2017
Santa Claus: My papa is ded i havent got no body to get me any thing if you want to send me any thing send it 703 mechanic St Your friend, Floyd Iowa 1915
— R.L. Ripples (@TweetsofOld) December 9, 2017
And you have to wonder how much different life was back then. No helicopter parents, that’s for sure:
Dear Santa: Please bring me lots of fireworks that wont blow a boys hands off or put a boys eye out like Willie's. Jimbo
Missouri 1908— R.L. Ripples (@TweetsofOld) December 12, 2017
There were kids who refused to follow gender stereotypes:
Dear Santa,You must bring me a bag of marbles. Mother says marbles are for boys but I want some anyway. Your girl, Evelyn
Kentucky 1905— R.L. Ripples (@TweetsofOld) December 11, 2017
Dear Santa, Some boys don't like dolls but I do. Won't you bring me a pretty doll in a brown dress and checkered coat? Gordon
Texas 1914— R.L. Ripples (@TweetsofOld) December 11, 2017
And some mingled in politics at a young age:
Dear Santa, Bring me a brother play with. Papa was a bad Democrat when he married Ma, but she turn him and now he is an awful Republican. Melvin
Missouri 1898— R.L. Ripples (@TweetsofOld) December 7, 2017
Perhaps some of the best ones showed kids just being kids. If it weren’t for the specifics of the requests, these children would be no different than our own sons and daughters today:
Dear Santa, Bring me a jumping jack, a flexible flyer, a doll. One of my goldfish died. I want a doll chair, a salt and pepper set. Do you make toy violins? I want a playhouse made out of candy. I have two goldfish. Good bye, Margaret Wisconsin 1913
— R.L. Ripples (@TweetsofOld) December 12, 2017
Mr. Santa: Will you please bring me a wagon with a duck hitched to it? I am five years old. I am fat. I was raised on melons. Howard says he is as big as me but he aint. O! I forgot to tell you I want some candy. Good bye. —Harold Bell Missouri 1903
— R.L. Ripples (@TweetsofOld) December 11, 2017
Dear Santa, I want a sled better than mine a sled like my brother’s so I could race with him, and if I beat him he will want to trade, but I won’t do it for if I did he would say he had the best sled and I don’t want him to. Your loving boy, Lorenzo
Vermont 1894— R.L. Ripples (@TweetsofOld) December 10, 2017
Dear Santa: Please bring me a boy doll with blue eyes, light hair, with silly look; I hate a smart-looking doll. Your friend, Norma
Texas 1900— R.L. Ripples (@TweetsofOld) December 10, 2017
Dear Santa, Please bring me a box of nuts, a box of candy and a box of ducks and frogs. I want a box of whistle dogs and a whistle bear. Your friend, Dora New Mexico 1919
— R.L. Ripples (@TweetsofOld) December 9, 2017
Share these tweets with your little ones to show them how much simpler life was not terribly long ago (relatively speaking, of course!).
Join the conversation as a VIP Member