It’s not always easy to get children to write a letter to someone unless it’s part of an organised activity but don’t lose hope. Writing to the right person, for example, someone who inspires them or is likely to write back, is a great incentive, and may make all the difference to their letter writing habits later on. But to be fair you can’t make someone write a letter. They really have got to want to give it a go.

Some ways to make letter writing fun include:

  • Write one for a time capsule.
  • Look up old messages in a bottle.
  • Search out fun writing sets or make your own.
  • Make your own paper or pencil to use.
  • Write a letter by candle or torch-light or with a quill.
  • Use sealing wax ye olde worlde stylie.
  • Write to your heroes, e.g. Tim Peake, Cressida Cowell, Blue Peter, The King, etc. See what comes back.
  • Write to your cousins, uncles, aunts. Do you know what any of their handwriting looks like?
  • Keep letters short to keep them fun, or do a joint family letter to get extra value from the stamp.
  • Definitely do something arty on the envelope (just make sure you can read the address).
  • Make scrap books of unusual stamps, interesting days out, photos of funny letter writing places (we’d love to see them too).
  • Decorate an old shoe-box to store all your treasured letters in (it will be a piece of social history in years to come!).
  • Try writing a huge letter as in flip-chart paper size. See what the smallest envelope is you can get it in but check the postage!

We even found some letter jokes, although do feel free to submit some better letter ones if you have any!  One or two were literally out of Christmas Crackers!