All I want for Christmas is… ～CAT’S LETTERS TO SANTA

Hi there, It’s Mom. Christmas is coming soon! On the Christmas day we sing a Christmas song, and Zoe and Hugo receive Christmas gifts. The gifts are two sticks of CIAO treats in their red cute stockings, as they are given every Christmas.

This year I will dig out the storage to find the small Christmas tree made of glass and decorate it somewhere in the house. Me and Dad bought that Christmas tree before Zoe and Hugo became a family, so it is new to them, making them curious. I will have to find a safe place to decorate it so that the kids do not break it with their craws.

So, in this article I will introduce an English book “CAT’S LETTER TO SANTA.” This book collects the letters that cats write to Santa Claus to ask for a gift. I occasionally find it at a bookseller and it attracted me with its front page where a cat with a Santa hat is trying to drop a letter in a mailbox. The letters are usually short and written in plain English, so non-native English speakers would be able to read it without a huge difficulty.

Here are some examples:

Dear Santa,

Have you considered using cars instead of reindeer? Here are the reasons why:

1. Cats eats less.

2. We make faster deliveries of presents because most houses have dogs and we move very swiftly when dogs are around.

3. We’re softer.

4. WE make nicer sounds.

5. Children are more likely to leave out snacks for you if they know that you’re traveling with cats.

Rudolph

Dear Santa,

Please don’t come down the chimney It’s very dirty. I know. I tried. Your friend, Jiminey

Dear Santa Claus:

Please don’t be cheap. I don’t want another ball of string for Xmas. Your friend, Jessie

Dear Santa:

Would you like a cat for Xmas? I am going to have kittens next week. Pam

Well, some of the letters seems to include a bit of dark humor… However, cats are such a grace animals- a worry about Santa coming to the house, like he might get dirty when coming in the house through the chimney, and another think he might want a cat for a pet. I enjoy the firm self-assertion of the cats in this book. If I were Santa Claus, I just follow the cat’s offer 😉

I noticed that the cat who sent the letter about the reindeer is named Rudolph, the same as the Christmas song. Also, the one who sent the letter about chimney is Jiminey, rhyming with chimney.

I guess many Japanese people do not know that the children leave cookies and milk on the table for Santa, or who David Letterman is, but this book provides us joy and huge hope for Christmas. More than anything else, many letters are short and we can read them without giving up. Also we can read each in a spare time.

Some time ago, a friend of mine in the United States told me that children write a letter starting from “All I want for Christmas is…” but they hardly mention the definite term of the gifts. So the parents go through hardships to know exactly what the children want. What a hard work the parents do! But it sounds interesting 🙂

What do Zoe and Hugo regard CIAO treats as the Christmas gift? They might say “Again?” or “We have this every weekend, Mom you now it.” Yes, I give them that treat every weekend; oh wow, my heart skips a beat. I am not sure if they claim “we want something more attractive!” Well, I wonder if I should choose something else.

I wish I could know what they want. Even when me and Dad bought a bed and blanket, we were not able to know whether or not the kids like them: they do not use them often, but it never means that they do not like them. They also have full of toys in a drawer. Food might be a good idea, but both of them have risks on the lower urinary tract, so we do not want them the different food or treats.

I would want a Solomon Ring that I can understand the animal words when wearing it.

Mom: What do you want for Christmas, kids?

Zoe: I’m starving!

Hugo: Mom, cuddle me!

Well… Sounds they do not have special wish for Christmas. They have delicious food and fresh water, they play with me using the toys every morning, they have three units of clean toilet, so they might think they have a perfect life here.

But if…, if they were tired of something around me, like the cats in the book saying “I don’t need another ball of string” or “I want a dictionary that have words besides“meow””… Me and Dad want our kids to have the most wonderful life and we wish to solve any problems they might have. So I will end up with wishing a Solomon Ring to Santa Claus:

“Dear Santa, all I want for Christmas is something round, ring-shape, and that provides understanding of animal words…”