Retiree, 76, delighted to dig up her adorable misspelled 1952 letter to ‘Santer’ asking for candy

It is an age-old tradition that is in danger of being pushed aside by modern alternatives such as e-mail or even video messages.

But a retiree who unearthed her own handwritten letter to Santa from 1952 shared yesterday how it has brought back memories of an “other time” when even a bag of candy was a long-awaited gift.

Deirdre Quemby, 76, discovered the letter she wrote at the age of six in a box containing her late mother’s belongings that she decided to sort through in the run-up to the holiday season.

The charming letter, complete with numerous spelling errors, is penciled and contains a hopeful request to send “sweets”, a rare commodity in 1952 when the UK was still dealing with post-war food rationing.

Miss Quemby writes that she wants a ‘Mackey Mouse’ book, meaning the Disney character Mickey, a porcelain tea set ‘like Mum got’, a dressing gown and a bottle ‘sent’ for her mother Olive, a ‘hakeakafe’ – meaning handkerchief – for nanny and a book for “grandmother”.

She signs off by sending love to ‘Santer’ and adding numerous kisses to it.

Miss Quemby, a former stand-up comedian who is about to begin her 60th year as a dance teacher, said she was said to have written the letter when the family lived in her grandfather’s pub in Shepshed, Leicestershire.

Her mother and father, Leonard, a former soldier who worked in an engineering firm, later moved to the village of Mountsorrel, where her late mother worked at the local Rolls-Royce factory. Miss Quemby still lives in the village outside Leicester.

“I don’t remember writing the letter, but finding it brought back wonderful memories,” she said.

‘I can still see the fire in the living room at the front of the pub where we spent most of our time. My grandfather always kept a bottle of horse liniment by the fire to keep it warm. Whenever we were in pain or hurt it was rubbed on us.

‘I see the 9 inch black and white TV and the big leather sofa.

‘Getting candy was a big problem back then. We still had rations – I remember the ration book.’

Sweets and confectionery were not rationed until 1953, eight years after the end of the war. Food rationing in Britain ended completely in July of the following year, when restrictions on the sale and purchase of meat and bacon were lifted.

Miss Quemby met and married John Hayward, who began his working life as a sheet metal worker for Rolls-Royce in Mountsorrel. The factory burned down in the 1960s and he went to work for the Severn Trent water company. Mr. Hayward died in 2008 at the age of 67.

The couple had no children.

Miss Quemby, who kept her maiden name after marriage, said: ‘Mama died 16 years ago and when I was clearing her belongings I found cardboard boxes full of musty old documents. There were so many of them from so long ago that it was impossible to go through them all in detail.

“The particular box in which I found the letter that she obviously kept as a memento because it was special to her. It was at the top of the wardrobe in my house and it wasn’t until recently that I thought “I need to go through this stuff”.

“I thought the best bits and pieces were in the photo albums, so I was very surprised to find this letter. I don’t know why my mother kept it.’

The Children’s Literacy Charity has previously expressed fears that technology is “taking over” Christmas letter writing, as websites now allow children to send letters to Santa online. Some even offer instant messaging to the North Pole, promising a quick reply from Santa Claus.

An app that’s becoming increasingly popular with families, it also offers kids the chance to track Santa’s progress around the world on Christmas Eve.