It is so easy to get nostalgic on this week of Christmas celebrations. Watching Dad fiddle with the 8mm projector trying in vain to get the 1940s era “Twas The Night Before Christmas” to play without skipping, or opening that one gift you wrote Santa a letter about hoping, hoping and hoping some more.

Over time, though, the letters we wrote to Santa gave way to a different generation, a younger generation. Gone were penning long letters asking for pages 420 to 489 of the Sears catalog. We passed on our wishes to the kids in hopes that their dreams were realized like ours were.

It’s a time to wonder if “kids these days” have the same hopes for wrapped boxes under the tree on Christmas morning.

Sean P. Murphy is Web editor. He can be reached at smurphy@vicksburgpost.com

On Thursday, The Vicksburg Post again will print Letters to Santa (we get copies sent to us here while the originals are sent to the North Pole). It’s interesting to see what today’s generation of Santa writer’s ask for.

Barbie is still a hot item among kids around here 50 years after her first appearance. Technology is always in high demand. While our parents asked for record players and we asked for CD players, it seems today’s kids want initials — a PSP, DSI, ISP. Thankfully Santa is more hip than most of us old fogeys and knows exactly how to construct a PSP.

Transformers, 4-wheelers and various firearms are highly requested, although one need only watch the holiday movie “A Christmas Story” to see what happens when a child is given a firearm.

Footballs and baseballs are popular requests, as is a Saints Super Bowl appearance.

The most important gifts of all, though, cannot be built or wrapped at the North Pole. They cannot speed down a plastic race track or sound a train engine whistle. The most important gifts are those that are hard to see as children but come into clarity as adults.

It’s easy to look at kids these days and wonder if they will inhabit the land of “me.” It’s easy to say gadgets have soured the future. Then one stumbles on a letter to Santa that erases all of those thoughts. Christmas is, after all, a time to think of others, to hug, love and strive for happiness.

As Summer, a student at Beechwood Elementary, put it to Santa Claus: “Dear Santa, I hope you are feeling OK. I would like some presents, but I don’t have to because what I really want is for my family to be happy.”

If Santa delivers on one letter this Christmas, let it be Summer’s.