100-Year-Old 'Dear Santa' Letter Uncovered in Chimney in Ireland
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}On Christmas Eve 1911, two children wrote a letter to Santa Claus requesting gifts and wishing him good luck on his journey. They placed it on a ledge inside their Dublin fireplace with hopes Santa would see it on his way down the chimney.
Nearly 100 years later, the house's current occupant found the letter, only slightly scorched and still remarkably intact, the Irish Times reports.
"I want a baby doll and a waterproof with a hood and a pair of gloves and a toffee apple and a gold penny and a silver sixpence and a long toffee," the children wrote, signing their names "A or H Howard."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}John Byrne, who now lives in the home, discovered the letter in 1992 while installing central heating. He keeps it as a token of the past that contains a childhood innocence still seen today, the Irish Times reports.
"At that time, the fireplaces were made of brick with a shelf on either side," Byrne told the Irish Times. "The letter was found on one of the shelves."
According to a census taken in 1911, there were three children living at the address at the time the letter was written, including Hannah, 10, and Fred, 7, whose name may have been short for Alfred, the Irish Times reports. Lily, 13, was also reportedly listed in the census.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Click here to see the letter and for more on this story from The Irish Times.