When my children were young, they would always write letters of welcome for Santa. We would set a special twig table in front of the fireplace with a glass of milk, cookies, and carrots with ferny green tops for the reindeer. And the letters. Then, in the dead of night, my husband and I would perform a ritual. We would scatter a scoopful of ashes from the fireplace on the Oriental rug and then he would place his big hiking boots in it, making tracks. Then we would drink the milk (him), eat the cookies, and nibble on the carrots. We would write a return note from Santa on the bottom of the Christmas letters. Then we would proceed to fill up the stockings and put the remaining presents under the tree.