What Santa Should (and Shouldn't) Mention in a Personal Message

The Uncanny Valley of Santa

You're watching your child open a personalised video message from Santa. His voice is warm. He says her name. He mentions she's seven years old.

Then he says something about how she's been "very good at school" and she should "keep being kind to her friends."

Your daughter's face doesn't change exactly, but something shifts. The spell flickers. She's still watching, but you can tell—a part of her is now analysing rather than believing.

What went wrong?

The message was almost personal. But the details were the kind anyone could guess. Generic goodness. Vague kindness.

Personalised Santa messages live or die on specificity. The right details create wonder. The wrong ones—or too few—create suspicion.

The Psychology of Belief-Building Details

Children's belief in Santa operates on simple internal logic: If Santa knows something he couldn't possibly know, then he must be magical.

One impossibly specific reference beats ten generic ones.

High-impact details:

• Things only family would know
• Recent events (within the last few weeks)
• Specific names (teachers, pets, friends)
• Unique identifiers (hobbies, accomplishments)

Low-impact details:

• Name and age (expected)
• Generic praise ("you've been good")
• Things that could apply to any child

Belief-damaging details:

• Information that feels surveilling rather than magical
• References a child might not want Santa to know
• Details that sound like a database

The goal is magical omniscience, not creepy surveillance.

What Santa Should Mention: The Specificity Checklist

Tier 1: Essential Personalisation

• Child's first name — Used naturally throughout
• Age — Mentioned casually
• A recent accomplishment
• A specific kind act

Tier 2: Belief-Reinforcing Details

• Teacher's name — "Mrs Patterson tells my elves you've been working hard"
• Pet's name — "Give [pet's name] a pat from me"
• Sibling's name — "I noticed how patient you've been with [sibling]"
• Specific hobby or interest
• Recent event — "That goal you scored last Saturday"

What Santa Should Never Mention:

• Physical appearance or body
• Behaviour problems or discipline issues
• Family difficulties (divorce, illness, bereavement)
• Wishes for things they're not getting
• Anything that creates fear
• Private information (medical details, therapy)

The Quick Test: Would my child feel delighted that Santa knows this, or uncomfortable?

A Word About Professional Messages

Some parents choose to use services that create personalised video messages from Santa. When done well, these can be remarkably effective.

The best services (like Santa's Whisper) understand the balance: they ask for the right details, avoid the wrong ones, and create messages that feel magical rather than manufactured.

Look for services that:

• Let you provide specific details (not just name and age)
• Avoid templated generic praise
• Create messages that feel warm and personal, not robotic

The Art of Magical Restraint

Here's the counterintuitive insight: less is often more.

A message that hits two or three impossibly specific details lands harder than one that rattles off ten generic ones. Children aren't counting references; they're feeling for authenticity.

The perfect Santa message makes a child pause and think, "Wait—how did he know about that?"

That pause is the magic. Everything else is decoration.

What will your child's "how did he know?" moment be this year?