By LISA BRITTON

Of the Baker City Herald

Computer technology hasn’t caught up to Santa.

Well, at least not in Baker City’s first grade classrooms.

andquot;I can see it now I’ll have each child on a computer sending an e-mail to Santa,andquot; laughed Linda Moxon, first grade teacher at North Baker Elementary, as her students meticulously penciled out letters to Santa.

First, Moxon said, they brainstormed a few Christmas words, such as andquot;Santa,andquot; andquot;ornamentandquot; and andquot;sleigh,andquot; and gift ideas that might make their way into the letters.

andquot;Dear Santa, How are you? I want a volleyball, please,andquot; wrote Makenna Bachman, 6.

Melissa Foltz, 6, asked: andquot;Please can I have a fake dog to play with?andquot;

andquot;I already have a cat and two kittens,andquot; she said with a smile as she looked up from her letter.

Kathleen Yencopal, first grade teacher at South Baker, uses andquot;Dear Santaandquot; letters as a device to introduce a few letter-writing techniques.

Before the students start their correspondence, Yencopal uses an overhead projector to demonstration the correct salutation (Dear Santa) and closing (Sincerely, Jared).

Then they tackled the project in earnest.

andquot;They have to start with a question,andquot; Yencopal said. andquot;Most want to start with what they want.andquot;

For example: andquot;Dear Santa, We have snow in Baker City. Do you?andquot;

Many first-graders at North Baker started their letters with a hopeful question: andquot;Am I on your good list?andquot;

Hollis Robb, 7, says this is a much better way to approach your ranking on one of Santa’s lists.

andquot;Some people ask if they’re on the naughty list,andquot; she said, shaking her head at the thought.

And be sure to pepper your letter with a few andquot;pleasesandquot; and andquot;thank-yousandquot; politeness never hurts when it comes to asking for presents.

Then, when the request is down on paper, it might be wise to end the letter with a wish of andquot;Merry Christmasandquot; chances are the man in red appreciates a jolly holiday spirit.

Brooklyn first-grade teacher Vickie Smith also incorporated letters to Santa in a lesson plan and provided a special form with spaces for the date, the greeting, the body and the closing.

But before students touched pencil to paper, Smith encouraged them to think of others before launching into what they wished to find under the Christmas tree.

andquot;First of all, we wished (Santa) a Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays. Then I asked them to ask for something special for someone else, or the world, before they thought about themselves,andquot; she said. andquot;They were very sincere and heartfelt.andquot;

Sending a letter electronically

Letter-writing seems to be a lost art these days, replaced by the ease and quick response of e-mail.

andquot;I send e-mails to my aunt Sandy. She lives in New York. I don’t like writing, it hurts my hand,andquot; said Justin Morris, 6, a first-grader at North Baker.

At Brooklyn, none of Smith’s students raised a hand when asked who had ever written a letter.

andquot;None of them had, not in this age with e-mails,andquot; she said.

There’s holiday hope for these computer-savvy kids.

A number of Web sites offer a direct e-mail link to Santa at the North Pole, and several even give a few suggestions on how to compose a proper letter.

A few sites that offer this service are:

o www.emailsanta.com

owww.santa-at-home.com/writesanta.shtml.

Even though Web-based links to the North Pole are prevalent, the Baker City Post Office still sees a fair number of hand-written letters to Santa Claus.

andquot;We get lots of stuff that just says andquot;To Santa,’andquot; said Lori Hayes, post office supervisor.

All that holiday correspondence is sent to Santa’s helpers in Portland at this address: P.O. Box 4029, Portland, OR 97208-4029.

And, Hayes said, it’s never too late to mail a Christmas wish list.

andquot;We send them in as long as we get them,andquot; she said.