In this issue of the Jessamine Journal, readers may have noticed a few misspellings in the Letters to Santa, I want to let you know it was intentional.

I decided to make the letters as authentic as possible, so we typed up all the handwritten ones from the children as they were — with a few words being corrected for clarity, before we sent them off to Santa.

Each letter I read brought back a small piece of nostalgia for me.

I was so excited when I saw some children ask for gifts for loved ones instead of themselves. I especially enjoyed the letters that ask Santa how he is doing, or the ones making sure the reindeer and Mrs. Claus were ok. 

While each letter was unique, most of them had one thing in common. Toys. While I am a stickler about not getting too wrapped up in the commercialization of the holidays, I wanted to point out a few of the most reoccurring toys in the letters, and inform readers and myself a little bit about each one. 

A Hatchimal is an interactive toy that hatches from an egg. The Hatchimal can vary in species and it is unclear which one has been purchased until it hatches. 

The Hatchimal takes about 10 to 40 minutes to hatch, according to the website. Once it hatches it goes through three stages; baby, toddler and kid. 

Five Nights at Freddy’s is a strategy horror game in which you play as the new graveyard-shift security guard at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. Everything seems normal during the day, but as night falls, the animatronic entertainers turn their attention to you.

The game is a series that began in 2014, and the most recent, “Five Nights at Freddy’s: Sister Location,” is the fifth installment. Five Nights at Freddy’s can be played online or downloaded.

The plushes vary in characters from a fox to a bunny to a bear, and in price from $10 to $30. 

A FlipaZoo is a two-in-one stuffed animal. It appears as a particular animal then it can be flipped inside out to expose another. They come in three different sizes, FlipZees (small), FlipaZoo (medium) and jumbo. A FlipaZoo is $19.99 plus shipping and handling at http://flipazoo.com/. 

I hope this helps with some of the upcoming Christmas shopping.