A Santa Letter & Gifts for a 1 Year Old

Gifts for Under the Tree

• The number one consideration with gift-giving to toddlers is safety. Toddlers constantly put objects into their mouths, and close adult supervision with any new toy as a safeguard is advised.

  Toddlers love tactile experiences. Allowing a toddler to open his gift can be as rewarding as the gift itself. Toy musical instruments bring melodies and an early appreciation of musical sounds. A gathering drum, a play piano and maracas can be manipulated by small fingers.

  Musical storybooks with colorful story characters also provide enjoyment and humor for children. Small manipulatives such as musical play stations or imitation laptops produce sound with touch-activated buttons that also trigger pop-up characters.

  Eco-friendly dolls made entirely of cotton with nontoxic painted facial features can become favorite cuddly toys. Large manipulatives such as small riding toys or plastic or wooden see-saw boats excite toddlers with a sense of autonomy and mobility. Shopping carts to push, sturdy building blocks or toddler-sized portable jungle gyms foster creativity as well as gross motor skills.

Stocking Stuffers

• Rubber bath toys never go out of style and make delightful play at bath time. Choose larger animal toys or rubber ships rather than minuscule toys. Small board books with familiar animal pictures or nursery rhymes are good choices for toddlers. Hand puppets rather than finger puppets are ideal for dramatic play and creative expression. Wooden figurines such as jungle, ocean or Noah's Ark's animals are great stocking-sized gifts. Oversized wooden train whistles and wooden train cars also make great stocking stuffers along with smaller cloth dolls and butterfly or flower stickers.

Creating a Toddler Santa Letter

• Writing a letter to Santa for a one-year-old will be more of an art activity than actual writing. Read Santa-themed picture books to your child beforehand to prepare for the project. Narrating Santa movies or cartoons with your child can also facilitate a Santa-letter activity.

  A Santa-letter activity not only introduces Santa Claus, but also creates a self-concept and language activity for your toddler. Explain to your child that you are writing a letter to Santa. Display several pictures of Santa Claus and holiday scenes from magazines, along with pictures of your child and family. Allow her to pick out the ones that delight her. Cut out the pictures or let her tear the pages of pictures from the magazine. Together paste the pictures on 8x11 or 11x14 sheet of construction paper. Encourage a conversation about Santa, with your child using the pictures as a reference. Write down all the words your toddler dictates on the construction paper with the pictures and read them back to your toddler. Point at the pictures and the words as you would in a picture book.

Sending and Receiving Santa Letters

• Mailing and receiving a letter from Santa can be an exciting and educational activity.

  To mail the letter to Santa, allow your child to choose the color of a large envelope. Explain to your child the letter is going to visit Santa Claus by mail. Tell her Santa is going to mail a letter back. Give your child crayons to color the outside of the envelope and holiday stickers to decorate the envelope. Address the letter to Santa to your own address with attention to your child's name. Add Santa's name to the sender's part of the envelope.

  Take a walk or drive to the post office, encouraging a conversation about sending the letter to Santa. Make a game of waiting for a response by assisting your child to peek in the mailbox to see if a Santa letter arrived. Since the letter will only take one or two days to arrive, it will be still be a surprise. Show your child the Santa letter addressed to her. Allow her to take it out and read it.