Santa Claus’ Top 5 Writing Tips

Happy Holidays

Just got an e-newsletter from the North Pole and Santa had these writing tips posted for the young-at-heart who are writing novels this year. Stay tuned: Santa promised to send me writing tips based on “The 12 Days of Christmas” tomorrow.


As our holiday gift to you, We are offering all 5 Winter and Holiday Writing Tips series posts as a free pdf:

Download Winter Writing with Kids Pdf Now – Free.

Happy Holidays! Included are:

  • Santa Claus’s Top 5 Writing Tips
  • 12 Days of Christmas Writing Tips
  • The Gingerbread Man’s Top 5 Writing Tips
  • Frosty the Snowman’s Top 6 Writing Tips
  • Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer’s Top 5 Writing Tips

Santa’s Top 5 Writing Tips

Santa's Top 5 Writing Tips
Image by Vanessa Pike-Russell



These tips from Santa Claus are based on the song, Santa Claus Is Coming To Town.

  1. Oh! You better watch out,
    You better not cry,
    You better not pout,

    Instant Conflict. When you open a story, make sure it has instant conflict. Here, the characters are crying and pouting.
  2. I’m telling you why:
    Santa Claus is coming to town!

    Plots. A Stranger comes to town. It is said that there are only two plots in the world: a character leaves home, or a stranger comes to town. This time it’s promised that the stranger will bring happiness and joy. But will he?

  3. He’s making a list,
    He’s checking it twice,
    He’s gonna find out
    who’s naughty or nice.
    Santa Claus is coming to town!

    Character Motivations. Are you checking your character’s motivations? You should know who is naughty or nice and especially why. No character should be totally one or the other. Soften villains and round out main characters by giving them a flaw.

  4. Darcy’s Best Writing Advice: Fiction Notes Books


  5. He sees you when you’re sleeping,
    He knows when you’re awake.
    He knows when you’ve been bad or good,
    So be good for goodness sake!

    Know your characters. You should know your character’s feelings, actions, morals. When s/he is admonished to be good, what would s/he do?
  6. So…You better watch out,
    You better not cry
    You better not pout,
    I’m telling you why.
    Santa Claus is coming to town.

    Endings. Make sure the story’s ending resolves the conflict you set up. Here, the song doesn’t resolve the conflict, so we have an unsettled feeling. Well, that’s probably OK. Christmas morning will tell the real tale. And it’s OK to leave the reader wanting a little bit more, as long as you resolve the inner conflict and leave the reader with hope.
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