December 6th is the feast day of Saint Nicholas whose reputation for secret gift-giving, such as putting coins in the shoes of those who left them out for him, became the model for Santa Claus.  Whether he’s known as Saint Nicholas, Sinterklaas, Father Christmas or Santa Claus in your house and whether he’s dressed in his traditional green or modern day red, the jolly bearded man is sure to capture the attention of children everywhere…

The St Nicholas Center website has several ready-to-print handouts including Who is Santa Claus – Really?, The Truth About Santa Claus, The Real Santa, Giving Tree Tags, Alternative Gift Cards, stickers, magnets, a prayer card and a digital scrapbooking kit as well as even more Activities to Print for kids including colouring pictures, cut-out designs, crossword, wordsearches, games, colour and cut out play set, step-by-step drawing guide, puzzles and hidden pictures.

Have your children written their letters to Santa yet?  If they need a helping starting point there are plenty of printable templates available to help them along.

A letter provided by Who Ate My Crayons has space for the writer’s name, age, a five item wish list and space for a photo or self portrait.  Graphic and web designer and mum-of-two Tia also includes a second Letter to Santa design to choose from on her creative blog, this time an all-in-one letter and envelope with a To Santa Claus, Lapland, North Pole address label ready to stick on the front.  A Thrifty Mum links to a Free Dear Santa Letter from Wink Designs which also has space for a picture of the writer, the chance to pick whether they’ve been very good, quite good or admit to being a little bit naughty and a box to draw a picture of Santa in.  Krokotak has a selection of themed bordered papers to frame a letter as well as a page with a bright and bold image of Father Christmas at the top.

All good letter writers know that one heartfelt missive deserves another by return of post.  I love that the Royal Mail teams up with Santa to help him respond to as many letters as he can from boys and girls across the country at his extremely busy time of the year promising “Santa will respond to as many letters as possible, in between getting the sleigh ready for the long journey on Christmas Eve”.  If you haven’t already sent your letter to the correct address by today however, the Royal Mail won’t be able to get a reply to you in time as it’s not just a busy time of year for Father Christmas and his elves but the post office also has quite a bit extra to contend with too.

Fortunately Amy from Living Locurto can help you out if your family are only just writing their letters now because she’s managed to get hold of “a copy of Santa’s REAL stationery, direct from the North Pole!”  Delivered to her by their Elf on the Shelf Peter, “he said, since I have been very good this year, it was okay for me to share a copy with my friends.  So I hope you are as excited about this as I am!!”  Santa’s free printable stationery is “full of Christmas magic and all you have to do is type your note into the editable area and print!”  Perhaps you could then post it to your children on his behalf or maybe he’ll find another way to magic it into your house.

And it’s not just letters that the hirsute philanthropist’s famous face pops up on.  Click back to Krokotak and you’ll find Santa and Angel paper toys, a Santa napkin ring and beautiful tag, a Santa Christmas Advent Calendar, Santa Gift Tag, Dress-Up Santa Claus Doll and a How to draw Santa tutorial.

Linette of Paper Glitter, Kristen of Paper Crave and Amy of Living Locurto blog hopped last year to offer their readers some cute and FREE Santa Printables including gift tags, a gift card holder and a gift box.

Three more gift boxes featuring Father Christmas are available from Christmas Printables alongside their Christmas wreath, tree, snowman and ornament designs.

If you need more Christmas cards then “let kids show their holiday spirt by embellishing a free printable Santa card design with craft supplies you probably already have on hand” by downloading HGTV’s Printable Santa Holiday Card – the “free printable template and step-by-step instructions make crafting this cute card a snap, even for the littlest crafters. Just print out the design then let the kids go to town embellishing it however they’d like.”

Emily from The Benson Street wanted “to create a printable that will help us all remember that Santa is about more than just commercialism”.  Her word art poster features his unmistakable belly band  – “Slap this baby in a frame or hang it from some festive twine. You just can’t go wrong.”

Do you love finding printables on the internet? Do you have particular favourites? Or have you featured some on your own blog? Email karen.malpass @ inkfactory.com with your links and we may be able to feature them in a future post.

December 1st: You’ve made your List but have you Checked it Twice?
December 2nd: Who’s been Naughty or Nice? Ask the Elf!
December 3rd: Have you got Christmas all wrapped up?
December 4th: Gifts too small to wrap? Put them in a box!
December 5th: Printable Christmas cards