Introduction
Whether your family is big or small, is there anything more special than that innocent delight that fills a child’s mind as the days’ melt away and Christmas Eve approaches?
The First Letters of Christmas has been designed to help you capture for all time those magical Christmases when your child is filled with the wild-eyed joy that runs through this time of year. The anticipation of the big day, the timeless story of Santa and his team, and the pure excitement that touches every part of the season – The First Letters of Christmas helps you preserve those feelings for precious posterity.
The First Letters of Christmas helps you journey through this captivating time with the beloved children in your life, teaching them the important lessons we learn during this season, and showing them how to consider the ways they have grown and developed throughout the year – because Christmas isn’t just about one day, as they discover when they come to pen those all-important letters to that mystical figure in red.
The templates have been designed so your child can create a letter to send off to Santa at the North Pole, while allowing you to keep a copy to preserve forever. In years to come, you can revisit those moments of joy as you read together about timeless Christmases Past you have cherished as time marches on.
The First Letters of Christmas inspires the imagination and nurtures the power of belief which comes naturally to children of all faiths and nationalities, from all over the world… a belief that goes on to inspire children to achieve all they can as they journey through life.
The story of Santa Claus and his dear Wife Mrs. Claus is loving retold with an emphasis on the power and magic that each letter and wish gives to Santa.
A multicultural cast of elves playfully engage in the story as it unfolds and Santa's sleigh receives its full charge from the magic collected from each letter sent.
The role of Mrs. Claus emulates that of most mothers over Christmas as they strive for the most perfect Christmas ever.
The book, sourced from an audit compliant manufacturer, has been beautifully bound in leather to give it that "Dickensian" Christmas look and feel and also so that it can stand the test of time and be put away with the Christmas decorations to be brought out each December when the festive season is upon us again bringing our tag line to life.
"First Letters of Christmas - Christmases for Life not just for Christmas"
We honestly believe that this product adds a new and exciting product to the Christmas heirloom market. We also believe it will also have huge international appeal.
The Goal
Our aim has always been to create something beautiful, that stores something beautiful.
Far too often modern day lives are managed, maintained and stored in some kind of digital format.
Do you remember the feeling you get when reading a letter sent to you by someone you love. This feeling could soon be lost to the online world.
Our book aims to capture and preserve some of the first words your children write. These words often contain the most magical and thought provoking memories of your children’s childhood and thus creating your own family history.
Illustrator- Jeremy Norton
The book has been carefully crafted and illustrated by the wonderful hands of Jeremy Norton illustrator
An artist and illustrator working digitally and a Brit who's been living and working in Barcelona for 11 years. With many years’ experience in the world of commercial illustration with an intimate knowledge of the creative process in publishing.
“My work reflects my experience of being a child growing up. The essence of what I do is in the mood and emotion; of joy, adventure and discovery - Universal feelings that most people share when they’re young. I want to portray that sense of wonder in the world.”
The Mediterranean light suffuses my pictures. Colour and light have always been my great loves but it has been pushed to the forefront since living here. I am influenced by illustration and animation, both classic Disney and modern 3D movies, also Turner, Rembrandt, Titian, impressionist painting and classic 20th century photography and films.
Project Stage
We are proud to say that the creative devolvement, illustrations, story-writing and proof-reading of the project have already been completed and we already have 10 sample copies of the book, so all rewards will be fulfilled should the goal be reached.
Our financial goal is to raise enough funds to produce 1000 copies in time for this Christmas (so apologies if this pitch comes across as being rushed).
This should give us the platform to grow the business organically and not be reliant on distributors.
We did approach distributors and publishers and whilst they loved the concept and USP they require up to 60% of the value of the book to be able to distribute the book.
As our book is hand finished the cost of each book sits a little higher than your average children’s hardback. Our rationale is that the book is built to last and has the same resilience and purpose as a photo album, but instead of holding photos “The First Letters of Christmas” holds a copy of the letters your children / grandchildren send to Santa.
£8,000 will give us enough funds to press go on 1000 copies plus cover freight to the UK. We intend to sell the books directly from our own website and will manage all distribution ourselves, a big task, but one we can manage as a family.
Our strategic aim is to create a family run business which gives us the financial stability that allows us to spend more time with our young children whilst also creating a platform for our children's working future.
Any and all pledges will help us and others around us break away from the current model that encourages massive wealth for just a few people. We strongly believe that we should take an active role in securing our financial future.
We would love to achieve our initial goal and would be proud to reach the target. Any funds reached over and above the target will help us not only produce more copies but also create engaging PR campaigns and build brand awareness.
Establishing The First Letters of Christmas as the original format for this idea is essential to our long term vision and that will require a robust branding and PR campaign.
We are blessed to have a group of close friends in both the US and UK who work in brand marketing and PR, and they of course will help with the task in hand, but if more funds were received we believe we could afford a more robust strategy to assist with our long term vision.
Spreading the word and distribution, as with all projects of this nature we rely a lot on good news being spread by word of mouth, so if you do like what you see and can help in any way by means of distribution outside the UK then please get in touch. We see the US, Canada as huge potential markets and would love to have some help and expertise on the ground in those locations.
If you are going to believe in one thing this year, Please Believe in us.