Letter to Santa is a 1949 Donald Duck and Scrooge McDuck comic, written and drawn by Carl Barks for Dell's Walt Disney's Christmas Parade #1.
On Christmas Eve in Duckburg, Donald and his nephews are killing time watching a giant steam shovel digging. Donald is in a good mood, having bought a new Christmas tree and feeling that his holiday shopping will be covered by Santa Claus. Eager to head home and warm up, he notices how entertained his nephews are by the steam shovel, and they ask Donald if he remembered to mail out their letter to Santa that they wrote last week. On the way home, Donald insists that he did, but upon searching his coat for ear muffs, he gets worried when he finds the nephews unopened letter right inside it. Donald, not wanting to upset his wards, urges the nephews to head home and set up the tree as he claims to have remembered something. Donald panics, realizing his nephews won't be getting presents unless he improvises them himself. He decides to open the letter, and to his shock discovers that they only want one thing for Christmas—a steam shovel! Flustered but determined not to let them down, Donald decides to seek out the aid of the "richest tycoon in the universe"—his Uncle Scrooge McDuck!
Naturally, Scrooge scoffs at the idea of buying a steam shovel, claiming if he could afford one he'd have it shoveling the piles of money surrounding his desk out of the way. Donald decides to leave in a huff and spitefully flips a silver dollar onto Scrooge's head, which flusters him enough to get into a brief brawl with Donald. But Scrooge gets curious and asks why the argument even started at all, and Donald reinterates that he wanted him to buy the nephews a steam shovel for Christmas. Scrooge chatises Donald for not mentioning the detail about Christmas, saying he doesn't spend his time watching the calendar. Scrooge eagerly gives Donald enough money to buy the steam shovel, and Donald thanks him, mentioning how the nephews will think Santa got their letter and brought them the shovel as he leaves. Scrooge, feeling insulted, throws a petulant tantrum about Santa getting the credit for his deed, and decides to go out and personally buy and deliver a shovel to the nephews himself ("What's the use of having eleven octillion dollars if I don't make a big noise about it?")
After some searching, Donald eventually finds and buys a used steam shovel, and is driving it down the street to deliver it—but trouble rears its ugly head when he hears a rumbling from the other direction and witnesses another steam shovel pulling up alongside him, with none other than Scrooge driving it. Donald demands an explanation, and Scrooge tells him his plan to deliver his own shovel to the nephews and tell them where, why and how much it cost to get it. Donald is livid, knowing it'll tip them off about forgetting their letter and spoil their belief in Santa. Scrooge and Donald then duel with their steam shovels, with Scrooge claiming he wants a little glory for himself. The fight not only destroys the shovels, but also damages nearby buildings, which gets Scrooge and Donald arrested. The judge immediately fines them $1,000,000 in damages, and Scrooge grumpily hands over twice that amount to keep them off of their back. Despite their luck with the law, Donald is still downbeat about the situation—night has fallen, and there's simply no time to go out and buy another shovel, so he decides to just go and break the news to his nephews. But Scrooge, having a sudden change of heart, comes up with a plan and decides to help out Donald, ordering him to seek out a Santa costume and meet up with him afterward before he explains it further.
Meanwhile at Donald's house, the nephews are counting down to midnight, with still a half hour left till Christmas. As they mope about, Scrooge and Donald pull up to the house in a makeshift sleigh, complete with a lanky work horse disguised as a reindeer, and Scrooge explains his plan to have Donald disguise himself as Santa and then deliver a hard luck story that he's all out of steam shovels, but he'll deliver one next year. The nephews hear the jingling of the sleighs bells from inside and put out the fireplace in preparation for Santa's arrival. Donald quickly grabs a ladder and climbs up the house, and falls right into the chimney. Huey, Dewey and Louie are shocked and nervous at "Santa"'s early arrival, and try to make him feel comfortable, apologizing for not cleaning out the chimney soot. As the boys hand him milk and cookies and talk with excitement about meeting "Santa", Donald tries to break the news but to no avail. The nephews then ask "Santa" if they can weigh him, and Donald quickly goes to the window for Scrooge's aid, and Scrooge advises to pull the cotton padding out of his suit and fill it up with beans instead. Donald rolls with it, and the nephews are impressed at Donald weighing 106 pounds. They then show off their new Christmas tree, complete with candle on top, but Donald's slippery boots combined with the tree being put on top of him cause him to slip and get his rump lit ablaze. The nephews quickly get him to a shower as Scrooge looks on from outside in agony.
After getting out, "Santa" finally has the chance to explain the shovel situation to the kids, but before he can, the water suddenly causes the beans to swell and expand out of control. Worried about a potential explosion, Donald tries to rush out the door, but is then forced to break for the chimney so he doesn't spoil the ruse. Unfortunately for Donald, he gets stuck in the chimney on the way out. Scrooge, having anticipated Donald would bungle things, is revealed to have brought a spare santa suit with him in case things went south, and makes his way inside to the anxious nephews, who are worried that they upset him. The disguised Scrooge then breaks the news that they aren't getting a steam shovel, saying they should have asked Uncle Scrooge for it instead of Santa. Outside, Donald hears every word of Scrooge's bragging and making fun of Santa, just as the beans in Donald's suit expand enough to break him free of the chimney. Wasting no time, Donald rushes inside to expose Scrooge as an "imposter" Santa, to the confusion of the nephews. And to get the upper hand, Donald then whips out the letter to prove he's the real Santa. But the ruse falls apart when the nephews notice a small detail—the letter has no postmark, and therefore wasn't even mailed. The disappointed nephews immediately catch on to both Donald and Scrooge's act and go off to mope.
As Donald and Scrooge go to blows over screwing things up, the nephews suddenly hear noise on the roof and some familiar laughter, and just then, a pint sized Santa emerges from the chimney to the bewilderment of everyone, bellowing "Merry Christmas, everybody!" as he magically expands himself to full size. Santa notices the lack of stockings, and assumes that the nephews didn't want anything for Christmas, but they explain to him that they did, but Donald forgot to mail their letter. revealing they just wanted a steam shovel. Unfazed by their crying, Santa reveals he happens to have a few extra ones in his sack of gifts, much to the perplexion of both Donald and Scrooge—which is revealed to be a toy steam shovel, which the nephews are instantly elated over. An exasperated Scrooge calls out Donald on not realizing this little detail, but Donald points out he has no room to talk either. Santa promptly leaves, but Donald rushes up the chimney, and asks Santa for a book on how to remember to mail a letter as he leaves. Scrooge immediately pops up, shoving Donald out of the chimney, insisting that if he doesn't have one, he'll buy Donald one, if not the factory that prints the books.
Tropes:
- Christmas Episode: The story is set on Christmas Eve, and the story finally concludes on Christmas itself.
- Deus ex Machina: After both Donald and Scrooge seemingly bungle Christmas for the nephews, the real Santa shows up and delivers them the gift they wanted, albeit a toy steam shovel instead of a real one that both uncles assumed the kids wanted.
- Didn't Think This Through: Donald and Scrooge's duel with the steam shovels not only causes a lot of property damage and destroys the shovels, it immediately gets them arrested for recklessly endangering the public with their actions. Even after Scrooge bails them out, it costs them a substantial fine of $2,000,000.
- Driven by Envy: Scrooge, upon learning that Santa will get the credit for the steam shovel that Donald will be getting for the kids thanks to Scrooge's money, spitefully goes out and buys his own steam shovel to deliver to the nephews so he can reveal Donald's ruse and take credit for the deed himself. And later on, after Donald's attempt at playing Santa backfires, Scrooge improvises his own costume and poses as Santa, using the opportunity to tell the nephews they should have asked Scrooge for the shovel instead of Santa.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- The comic was written when Scrooge was still a relatively new character to the comics (it's his seventh chronological appearance, his first having been just two years prior) and thus his still embryonic personality differs from his later appearances. For example, upon learning it's Christmas, he's much more eager to shell out money for a steam shovel, a notion Scrooge wouldn't even entertain in later comics, such as A Christmas for Shacktown.
- As historian Michael Barrier points out in his introduction to the story in A Smithsonian Book Of Comic Book Comics, including Santa Claus as a real person was a rather unusual sight for a Barks story, as he usually avoided having blatantly fantastical characters like that exist in his duck comics."Santa Claus himself appears in Letter To Santa, and this is unusual, because Barks usually avoided characters who were wholly fanciful even on the terms set by the ducks' fanciful universe. But when Barks did use such characters—Santa Claus, or a witch, or a dragon—he presented them with the same care, the same concern for plausibility, that he gave to the other elements in his stories. Barks's Santa is one we can almost believe in. For one thing, Barks has figured out a way to get his Sanra down even narrow chimneys. Note too that this Santa is a very practical fellow; he gives the nephews exactly what they want, but only that—theres no flood of unrequested gifts. And typically for Barks, this Santa, by his very existence, creates more problems than he solves."
- Escalating War: The story is basically a comedy of errors that spawns from Donald and Scrooge trying to outdo each other just to win over their nephews.
- Extremely Short Timespan: The entire story unfolds across the span of half a day, starting around mid Christmas Eve and concluding around midnight.
- Poor Communication Kills: The entire plot is kicked into motion by Donald believing the nephews unrealistically actually want a real steam shovel, when they really just wanted a toy one instead.
- Real After All: Santa Claus turns out to exist in the ending.
- Rule of Funny: Santa being real. It's really just a conveniently silly way for the comic to avoid what would otherwise have been a really sad ending.
- Spotting the Thread: As soon as Donald (disguised as Santa) presents the nephews their letter that was supposedly mailed to prove he's the real deal, the ruse immediately falls apart when they astutely notice that the letter has no postage stamp on it.
