Bulgarian Posts has been organizing for twenty years a very exciting competition named Letter to Santa Claus.  This year the interest towards the event is huge and the letters have exceeded 7,000. All children who send a letter to the white-bearded magician receive a personal reply. Those who write the best letters are to receive special gifts. Ivanka Paunova who works at Bulgarian Posts makes sure these letters reach Santa Claus. What Bulgarian children dream about? Here is what Mrs. Paunova told Radio Bulgaria:

“The good news is that people never get tired of this contest. On the contrary, the interest towards this event has been constantly on the rise. The time we all live in have changed our children, too. They became more mature and more generous. There was a time when children behaved like consumers. I remember a letter where a child asked for over 30 gifts for Christmas. Now children are used to living in a more difficult reality - economic difficulties, unemployment, ill relatives, etc. Children think different nowadays. Now they often ask for books, child encyclopedia, educational games and drawing sets. The little ones, of course, dream about toys and dolls which substitute their sisters, or brothers, because parents tell children that they can have a sister or a brother later, when they grow up and are able to help them with the child care. The elder children usually ask for tablets, because they help them with their studies. There are a lot of jokes in these letters such as: I want to hit the jack-pot in the lottery. Children have a natural sense of humor. A girl once wrote: “Dear Santa Claus, I was a naughty child this year, because we moved to my grandmother’s house and she talks a lot and makes me nervous”. Another child wrote: “Dear Santa Claus, I did my best to be a good child this year and will continue to do that next year, too.”

Do children dream about pets, which would make them better, careful and loveable?

“I read this wish very often in their letters. Pets are integral part of their everyday life and their dreams. Sometimes parents do not agree with that wish and children ask Santa Claus to persuade their mothers to get a pet. I was moved by a letter of a Bulgarian girl who apparently lost her pet and lost all hopes that it would get back home. That is why it asked Santa Claus to tell her where Rocky was and if it was well.”

Are children compassionate to other peoples’ fate? Are they open to any forms of charity causes?

“Most children write in their letters to Santa Claus that parentless children must receive presents first, so they can feel happy in the Holly Night and do not feel lonely. Children are extremely generous. I often come across the following appeal: Dear People, Be Good! This sentence can become a world slogan. The world of our children bristles with kindness. I often laugh or cry when I read their letters and I know some of those letters by heart. We can learn a lot from children’s sincerity and they can teach us to be more open-hearted and helpful.”

What is the attitude of the Bulgarian children towards Santa Claus?

“Their attitude towards Santa Claus is great. Children can share everything with him. I remember the letter of a child which read the following: “Dear Santa, please send to my daddy, who is now in heaven, many kisses on Christmas Eve”. Some children perceive him as an ordinary elderly man, a friend, or even a relative. Once, a boy wrote: “Dear Santa, you are my idol!” A girl wrote: “I have been dreaming of meeting you all my life!” Some children, of course, doubt that Santa Claus actually exists, but all of them want him to be real. Some children write: “Dear Santa, please send me a photo”. An elder girl who already turned fifteen and has always been writing letters to Santa said: “Dear Santa, I will always believe that you are real, because if I stop believing, I will lose my dreams.” I hope that this contest will continue in the future, because it makes young and elderly people noble and is full of kindness”, Ivanka Paunova concludes.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov