Archiving an Enchanted Childhood? The Swiss Case of Letters to Santa Claus

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines the conditions under which children's written productions are collected, mediated, and archived through a case study of letters addressed to Santa Claus in Switzerland. Since 1950, the Swiss Post has responded annually to thousands of letters sent by children; a selection of these letters has also been preserved in a museum as part of an institutional heritage collection. The article interrogates the legal, ethical, and epistemic frameworks that govern this particular archival program. Drawing on institutional archives, internal reports, and media representations, this paper analyses how children's letters are progressively transformed from intimate correspondence into institutionalised knowledge about childhood. Attention is paid to a set of interconnected archival ‘nodes’—legal, patrimonial, curatorial, and epistemic—through which children's writings are reclassified, recontextualised, and made publicly legible. The analysis emphasises how the cultural enchantment surrounding Christmas operates as a powerful legitimising narrative, rendering socially acceptable practices that would otherwise raise concerns about the secrecy of correspondence, data protection, consent, and stewardship. While children's voices are highly visible within this archive, they remain largely absent from the processes that shape the collection, interpretation, and circulation of their letters. This asymmetry highlights how institutional practices can simultaneously valorise children's expressions while constraining their agency. By situating this case within debates in childhood studies and in critical archival studies, the article contributes to discussions on children's presence in the archives by shifting the focus from the mere presence of children's voices to the conditions under which these voices are archived, curated, and remembered. It argues that the Santa Claus letters constitute not so much an archive created by children as an archive of an enchanted childhood, shaped by adult imaginaries, affective regimes, and institutional logics.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Children & Society, 2026 · DOI ↗