It used to be that a child’s only options for personally connecting with Santa in the lead-up to Christmas were to send a handwritten letter to the North Pole or snag a few one-on-one moments at their local mall. But in 2020, even in the middle of a pandemic, kids have loads of ways to connect virtually with the big man—including, now, chatting with him over Facebook Messenger Kids.
However, as we all know, dude is pretty busy this time of year. So to help him out, he has asked parents to take his place and chat for him right now. That is to say, you can add him as an approved contact for your child, but then you’ll be the one messaging with them on his behalf. As Facebook explains:
To kick off the conversation, parents can ask kids “What are you most thankful for this year?” or to share their favorite holiday tradition. To help continue the holiday magic, the Santa chat thread will stay open until January 6 so kids can say “thank you” and share photos of their favorite holiday memories.
To add Santa to your child’s approved contact list, you can click here or:
1. Go into your Messenger app and tap on your child’s profile
2. Tap “Messenger Kids Controls,” and then “Controls”
3. Tap “Santa Experience,” and then “Add Santa.”
Parents will not get notifications when their child has sent a message to Santa—lest they see the alert and get suspicious; you’ll need to manually check your messages periodically. And only the creator of the child’s account will have the option to add Santa to their contacts and message as him.
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Santa will automatically be removed from your child’s contacts list after Jan. 6, but you can manually remove him at any point before then. If you do, it will remove the chat from Messenger for both accounts.
