Santa's nice list

In the old story, it's the list Santa keeps of every child who has been good all year. Ours is a little different. A child gets on it by doing kind things, a grown-up writes three of them on the certificate, and Santa signs it. Even the smallest child can manage one, like handing a sister her teddy.

By doing kind things, big or small. Sharing a toy counts, and so does a hug for someone who's sad. Our 24 kind things give you one idea for each day of December. If your child wants to tell Santa about a kind thing themselves, there's room for it in a letter to Santa.

There isn't one here, and there's no naughty certificate to print. A list of the bad things can turn Santa into someone to be scared of, and he's much nicer as the one who notices the good things. If the naughty list is only ever a joke in your house, that's fine, and you know your child best.

Whenever it feels right in December. Some families give it on December 1 with the calendar, so their child starts the month already on the list. Others roll it up in the Christmas Eve box, prop it against the cookie plate, or tuck it in with a letter from Santa on Christmas morning.

Yes. Every child is on our nice list. A hard year is often a brave one, and kind things still happen in it, even tiny ones: a hug, a shared snack, letting the baby have a turn. Write those down. You can type your own line too, like "Kept trying when things were hard", because being kind to yourself counts.

No. The certificate is made in your browser and printed from there. The name stays on this device for the other Christmas makers, until you press Clear, and the kind things vanish when you close the page. We only count that a certificate was printed, never what it says.