In 1918, the Americus Times-Recorder published a series of “Dear Santa” letters from local children. The “Great War” had just ended in November. A deadly influenza epidemic raged around the world. The children’s letters reflect the hopes and fears of children (and adults writing as children) in a year of war and sickness.

This page is a digital companion to my December 2020 essay in the Americus Times-Recorder. Below is a pdf of all the “Dear Santa” letters pulled from the newspaper microfilm. Anticipating interest in local family history, I’ve included a rough name and day-by-day index of the letters.

If you have trouble loading the PDFs, this Google Drive folder contains the individual page clippings.

There are many possible ways to use these in the classroom. For starters, though, I’d suggest reading the article and thinking about the following questions:

(a) What evidence supports the claim that these letters offer insight into the local and global knowledge of children in 1918?

(b) How do the hopes and fears of children in 1918 compare to those of children a century later?