• by Larissa Faw , December 23, 2015

Every year, more than 8 million children in the United States alone send letters to Santa Claus asking for Christmas gifts. Far fewer send a thank you note to him after they’ve been gifted. Like they forgot his address or something. 

This year a new project from The Thanks-Giving Foundation and Dallas-based ad shop Commerce House is encouraging children to send thank you notes to Santa. 

Developed pro bono by CH, the concept serves as a step toward reviving the lost art of the thank-you note, according to the agency.  

"Kids are at the stage where they're forming habits, and this is a great one to adopt," says Mark Denesuck, Founder/CEO, Commerce House. "By getting kids to do it, we hope to expose their parents to the practice as well."   

Here’s how the project works: 

Kids write and post thank you notes to Santa on a mobile-friendly website through January. On the website, kids can post photos or scans of handwritten notes, or create digital notes using any of a number of templates. The Thank You Note Project team will review every submission, send an acceptance email with a link to the page on the site, and then share a select number of notes on the organization’s Facebook page. 

Paid and social ads will target parents and teachers of elementary school students, as well as people who already follow like-minded organizations and projects, with engaging content and boosted posts. 

Meanwhile, a Page Likes campaign, running through February, will attempt to build the Thank You Note Project Facebook audience with ads featuring video, creative images, and kid-generated thank you notes. 

Commerce House will also run Page Post Engagement ads - also known as the boosted post - to widen the audience and engagement in the form of comments, shares and content viewing.  

The Thanks-Giving Foundation was formed 50 years ago in the wake of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and has primarily promoted the value of gratitude in building civic unity. The group says that The Thank You Note Project puts that spirit into action on a personal and family level.