Mary Welch Mitchell was the second child born to Charles F. and Anna Welch Mitchell. Mary was born on 30 April 1901 in Oklahoma. She was a charming person with a wealth of knowledge on many subjects. Conversation with Aunt Mary was never dull!
Mary was especially fond of her nieces and nephews, and at one time or another just about all of them visited her in her home in El Paso, TX, where she taught English at Austin High School for 40 years. She took them to Juarez, Mexico, and kept them entertained while they visited with her. Mary died on December 22, 1981, and we still miss her.
In 1956, she wrote a “letter from Santa Claus” to one of her youngest nieces, and happily that letter still survives for us to enjoy Mary’s creativity and her joy in life. The names of living people have been changed in this letter, but otherwise it is just as Mary typed it.
Maggie
North Pole
December 13, 1956
Dear Susan,
My Elf in charge of correspondence has just laid your letter on my desk. I have assigned four Elves to check my lists to find your name.
Later: My Elf in charge of lists for taking care of toys has reported that you are at the top of that list. He reports that the things I left for you last Christmas are in good order.
The Elf in charge of dolls has just come in. He says that you are a little girl who takes care of her dolls. He tells me that one of his walking dolls has asked to be taken to you. She says that she would like to live with you.
The third Elf assigned to your case has now reported. He finds your name high on the list of children who get up in a good humor every morning. He tells me that you work very hard making other people happy. He read me a note that he made last year about how good you were on the trip to Oklahoma and how you helped entertain your little cousin Julia Ann when she was tired and sleepy. He tells me that you sang to her all the way in the car.
The Elf in charge of thumb sucking is now ready to report. He has a record of how hard you worked last year and how you quit sucking your thumb before Christmas. He says that everyone is allowed a few nights when having tonsils out or during any other illness like chicken pox. He doesn’t count those nights.
I am glad to see in your letter that you are giving some of your toys to the Indian children. The little children that you make happy get better acquainted with me and love me more. That makes me happy, too.
I am glad to see that you have thought about your brothers, too, and have told me what they want. Tell Jerry that I have sent forty elves out searching and they have all come back with the same news. We are fresh out of cars in his size. Ask him if he will settle for a nice pair of roller skates.
As for Bobby, the only thing I have in my pack for sailors is a nice linen handkerchief.
I know that your Aunt Mary is glad that she can spend Christmas with such a lovely little girl as you are and with your pleasant family.
I’ll be glad to drop in myself on Christmas Eve. I like to come where people are kind and good and like to make one another happy as your family does. Of course you will be asleep when I come, but I’ll look in your room and see you there with Mommy and Daddy in their room and Bobby in his room and Aunt Mary sleeping somewhere and Jerry on the couch. Tell him he mustn’t peep while I’m putting the presents out.
I like the way you signed your name. You work very hard at kindergarten to do such good work.
My time-keeping Elf has just rung the little bell that says I must read the next letter on my desk.
“A Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”
Santa Claus
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