Dear Santa, Send Me a Mom (Not Clothes)

Some are funny, some are sad; some ask for a microscope, some to be transformed into an elf; but the one thing kids writing letters to Santa agree on is: no clothes. So says a professor who analyzed more than 1,200 letters sent to Santa, from one child's heart-wrenching request for a mom to the boy asking for a golden retriever who wrote "please" 16 times, the AP reports.

The letter-writers' manners could be better, says Carole Slotterback, who's written a book about the Santa letters she read: Kids tend to say "please" only when asking for a pet or something they think they won't get. And while they aren't so worried about politeness, kids are very concerned about making sure Santa finds them: many included not only their addresses but their phone numbers, parents' cell phone numbers, and their school pictures. (More letters to Santa stories.)