Stamp of approval

It's almost that time of year, when children, naughty and nice, will draft their letters to Santa outlining their wish lists. 

This time-honored tradition just got a little more exciting thanks to PhotoStamps, personalized stamps that let you turn your digital photos, designs or images into valid U.S. postage. 

This year, PhotoStamps is making it easy for kids everywhere to add a little creativity to their letter by allowing kids to go online and create and order a free PhotoStamp to mail their letters.  To order, simply go to www.photostamps.com/santa and upload your photos - of your child, the family dog, artwork - and place the order.  Your PhotoStamp will arrive in one week. 

In the meantime, you can help your child draft his or her letter to Santa. To help with this, PhotoStamps offers these tips:

• First write your address in the top right hand corner of the page so that Santa will know where to find you.
• Remind Santa how good you have been this year.  He already knows this, but it never hurts to remind him.  :)
• Santa likes children with good manners.  Don't forget the "please" when asking him to bring the presents you would like.
• List one or two things you want the most.  Then mention others that would be nice but don't matter as much.
• Thank Santa for being so generous.
• Send your love to the elves and reindeer. Don't forget Rudolph!
• Write a closing such as "Love" or "Sincerely" and sign your first name only.
• Give the letter to your mom or dad to mail for you.
• Send the letter with your personalized PhotoStamp, of course. Or you can do what my 6-year-old did and just circle all the toys you want in the big book of toys Toys R Us so THOUGHTFULLY mails out and enclose that with your letter. (You'll probably need an additional PhotoStamp for that, though.)