Fun letter ideas

18 Letter Writing Prompts To Bring Back Snail Mail| Jennie Moraitis

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Here are some letter writing prompts to get you back into writing old-fashioned mail. Make someone’s day today! :)

I come from a family of letter writers. When I was a little girl, I would write letters to my Grandpa (my mom would pen in his last name), and he would write me back. He would send photos of the dog and tell me about his projects and the garden. I loved getting mail from him. When friends moved away, I wrote letters to them. And many of them wrote back. I still have letters from a friend who wrote to me by candlelight in the Amazon (her parents moved there for a few years to be missionaries.)

When it was time for college, I wrote volumes back home and received volumes back. I laughed until I cried from letters from my sisters. We went through a stage of making envelopes out of magazine pages so those were particularly colorful (and funny, since we also wrote our own comments on the ads. ) My mom wrote beautiful descriptive letters about how life was going and even my dad would drop me a line here and there.

But as email and texting and social media in general have come more and more into play, my letter-writing has slowed almost to a halt. I still write my Grandpa and the little girls we sponsor. And I try to send notes to my mom and sisters. Just this last week I received a novel (what we call a very long letter) from one of my sisters and another from my mom. I need to write them back!

When I ask around, it seems that most of us are not writing ‘real’ letters anymore (‘real’ meaning pen on paper as opposed to long emails, etc.) but that many of us want to write more. This is very interesting to me. I hear things like, “I love receiving real mail instead of just bills!” but then most of us kind of stay in that, “Wouldn’t it be nice?…” place and don’t do the thing. Myself included.

So, I thought I’d write a blog post with some letter writing prompts and ideas so you can get back into the writing spirit.   This isn’t an exhaustive list but hopefully it will get you going with writing letters again. I’m sure your friends and family will appreciate receiving something other than junk mail in their mail box!

1. Be an Encourager. Write out a few ways you’d like to encourage this person on a post-it note before you start your real letter and refer to it as you write. It is always nice to think of how you can encourage your recipient rather than just writing until you can’t think of anything else to say. (Here are some free printable encouragement cards that you could use.)

2. Illustrate your day or a recent trip. You might think your day is too boring to illustrate, but it is actually fun to see a peek into someone’s life. What did you eat for breakfast? What did you notice on the way to work or school? When you start looking at your day as an observer, things will start to pop out at you. I once saw a woman very intently reading a book with a large magnifying glass at a coffee shop. And there was the time I was on a run and saw a man playing the trumpet to the ocean waves. Those little random moments made great illustrations!

3. What’s the weather like where you are? I know, nerd alert, but this is nearly always included in my letters. I can’t help myself. I think it is interesting to read about the ice storm that hit the East coast or how the daffodils are coming up early this year.

4. Describe a new favorite place to visit. Maybe you just discovered a fun coffee shop or a little courtyard where you can sit by a fountain and write. Write about it!

5. The latest and greatest antics from the kids (or pets). You’ll probably naturally add this in. Did your toddler just start counting to twenty out of nowhere? Has your cat decided it will only eat its food when no one is looking? Random, but funny moments are fun to read.

6. Share what you’re learning. Maybe you are in school and you can take this quite literally by sharing some of the things you’re getting out of your classes. But even if you’re way past school age, you’re always in the state of learning. Did you read something interesting lately? See a good movie that you recommend?

7. Talk about your goals. Most likely you’re writing to someone who loves you so they will probably think it is interesting to see what you’re working on right now. And don’t be intimidated by the word, “goal”. It could be something really simple like sharing how you’re on a mission to learn how to make the perfect scone.

What to Include in Your Letter

1. Send a family picture or a picture of yourself. Sounds silly but honestly, so often we take pictures these days and never print them. It’s fun to receive a picture of someone that isn’t a holiday picture (at least I think so. :))

2. Make a paper chain or a banner to celebrate an event. Make it super small so it fits into an envelope. It will be a mini celebration!

3. Send a postcard. You can send this in the letter or separately. It is always fun to receive one of those majestic scenic postcards in the mail.

4. Make a mini-book. Fill it with favorite quotes, illustrations, collage, or whatever you’d like. You could also send blank mini-books and explain how to fill them up.

5. Kid’s artwork. I love receiving artwork from my nieces and nephews. Our refrigerator is like a little museum. If you have kids, before you toss that latest masterpiece because it is cluttering the counter top, consider sending it to Nana or Auntie. You could also take your child’s art and make it into a card by using this tutorial.

6. Send a poem. In my mom’s latest letter, she mentioned coming across an old letter I had sent her years ago when I was working in Santa Barbara, California. I had copied out a favorite poem at the time, “Black March” by Stevie Smith. I had forgotten about it, but just looked it up again. What a beautiful thought to read. Poems or lyrics to a song convey so much truth and are wonderful ways to share your heart.

No More Excuses! Write a letter today using one of these awesome #letterwriting prompts.

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No More Excuses!

1. Just do the thing. Take 15 minutes, grab a piece of paper, and write. It really won’t take you as long as you think. If you’d rather type, then type it out on the computer and print. Done.

2. Make a date to write. Maybe you don’t have time at the moment to write, so instead, schedule it in. I’m not usually stringent with this—it is supposed to be fun, right?—I just write on my to-do list at the beginning of the week that I need to write a letter to so-and-so and make a point to do it somewhere in those seven days. p.s. This is what I mean by a “letter-writing retreat” in the image above. It takes me 10 minutes to write a meaningful letter during my retreat time (usually nap time!), and I’m always so glad I did.

3. Think of how happy you’ll make that person. Maybe that is a silly thing to say, but if that is what works for you, go ahead and do it. What grandparent is going to roll their eyes at a letter? Most people are kind of surprised and grateful for real mail. You might just make someone’s day!

4. Buy stamps at the grocery store. You wrote the letter, addressed the envelope, and . . . oh, yeah, a stamp. Rather than going to the post office which may or may not be out of the way for you, just pick up a book of stamps at the grocery store the next time you’re there. Write it as an item on your grocery list so you don’t forget.

5. Write how you talk. No need to be fancy. You don’t have to sit down and think up elaborate sentences and make this into a chore. Have fun, jot down your thoughts, and send that letter off into the world!

If you want to do something really fun, you should try making a set of Write Me Back cards for the friend you’re going to write. One of my friends and I did this a few years ago and I loved making/receiving a card every month!

Well, hopefully these few ideas encouraged you to bring some letter writing back into your life. I know that I am going to take these thoughts to heart and write my sister and mom back! I created a letter-writing bundle that is seriously full of prompts like these, tutorials, and printable stationery so you can keep your letter-writing going all year long. Click here to check it out.

Hope you all have a lovely {and creative} day!

32+ Letter Writing Prompts: Letter Writing Ideas ✉️

April 27, 2020

Did you know that letter writing has risen in popularity over the recent years? In fact, in the year 2017 to 2018 over 36% of children said that they enjoy writing letters in their free time. While in 2011 this percentage was as low as 28%. It’s not a drastic increase, but it’s definitely a clear increase! So to support this continued rise in interest for letter writing, we have come up with over 32 letter writing prompts to encourage lower and middle school children to write more letters in their spare time.  

Our list of letter prompts covers everything from elementary school prompts to middle school letter-writing ideas, as well as persuasive letter writing ideas.  See our post on 150 writing prompts for middle school students for more writing ideas.

Over 32 letter writing prompts for students in the 1st grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade to even 6th graders:

1. Favourite things: Write a letter to your pen pal asking them about their favourite things. Start by asking them about their favourite colour, food, animal and favourite subject at school. Then you can talk about your own favourite things.
2. Distant Relative: Write a letter to a distant relative (someone you haven’t seen in a while). In this letter, you can talk about the things you miss about them and also the things they are missing out on here at home. 
3. Fan Mail: Write a letter to your favourite celebrity. What would you ask this celebrity? Is there anything you would like to share with them? What do you like most about them?
4. Future Self: Write a letter to yourself in 5 years time. What would you tell your older self? What things would you want them to remember from the past?
5. Thank an everyday hero: Think about someone that inspires you. This could be a teacher, nurse, doctor, policeman and so on. Write a note to them thanking them for the service they provide every day.
6. Write to your favourite superhero: Superman, Wonder Woman, Captain America, Spiderman – Whoever your favourite superhero is, write an imaginary letter to them. You can talk about their superpowers, a recent battle they might have had, their arch-nemesis or anything else!
7. Lesson Learned: Think about something that you have recently learned and who you learned this from. Can you write a letter to thank them for teaching you this amazing new lesson?
8. See you later Letter: It’s the last day of school. Write a ‘see you later’ letter to your friends which you might not see over the holidays. 
9. Goodbye Letter: You’re leaving a long adventure and you don’t know when you’ll be back. Write a goodbye letter to your loved ones and friends telling them that you’ll miss them and about the adventure you have planned. 
10. Old Memories: Think about your favourite past memories. Who are these memories with? Write a letter to this person talking about your favourite moments from this memory. 
11. Weather forecast alert: Write a letter to someone in another country describing the weather where you are right now.
12. Cheer them up: Write a letter to cheer someone up who is sad. You could include a funny story or joke in this letter.
13. The first time we met: Think about the first time you met your friend. Write a letter to them reminding them of this time. 
14. Letter to Grandparents: Write a letter to your grandparents, asking them about the old times. What was school like for them? What kind of games did they play when they were young? 
15. Birthday Party invites: Write a letter inviting someone to a birthday party that you’re having. Talk about the party theme, food, music and don’t forget to include the time and location.
16. Apology letter: Have you hurt anyone’s feelings recently? Write them an apology letter to tell them how sorry you are. 
17. Letter to Santa: Write a letter to Santa, telling him that you have been good with examples. Don’t forget to include a wish list!
18. Alien Invasion Response: Aliens are coming to invade Earth! Send them a letter to convince them to stop invading Earth.
19. Letter of complaint: Imagine you recently went to a restaurant and the food was bad. Now write a letter of complaint to the owner of that restaurant. In this letter, you can give them ideas of how they can improve their food and service. 
20. Letter to publication: Do you have a favourite magazine that you read? Write a letter to your favourite publication telling them how good their recent issue was.
21. Letter your mayor/council: Write a formal letter to the mayor of your town, telling them how to improve your town. You can talk about the issues in your town and how these can be fixed. 
22. Trapped on an island: Imagine you are trapped on an island in the middle of nowhere. Write a message in a bottle to someone. This can be an SOS message, a message telling others how good your life is now or how bad it is. What message would you want people to find?
23. People of the future: Write a letter to the people of the future in 100 years time. What things would you want them to know about your life?
24. Secret Admirer: This one is a good Valentine’s Day writing activity. Write an anonymous letter to someone you like, telling them everything you like about them. 
25. Letter to an object: Write a letter to an inanimate object in your room, like a pencil or a chair. What would ask this object?
26. New stuff: Write a letter about something new you got recently. You can start the letter by saying, “Today I got…”
27. Deforestation: You just found out that a new company is building its headquarters in your town. To build this new building they will have to destroy the local forest. Send a letter to your local mayor stating your opinion. Take a look at these endangered species writing activities for more environmental fun.
28. The Job Application: Write a letter to a company that you want to work for in the future. Tell them why you would make a good worker and why they should hire you.
29. Animal Testing: You recently found out that a local beauty company is using animals like monkeys and dogs to test their new range of make-up. Write a letter to this company telling them why this is unethical or bad.
30. Homework and more homework: Write a letter to your teacher telling them of your opinion on homework. Do you think homework should be banned? Why or why not? 
31. Animal Letter writing: Imagine if animals could write. Choose an animal of your choice and write a letter to them. What have you always wanted to ask your chosen animal? This DIY animal envelope tutorial could be a fun idea here.  
32. Fairytale letters: We’re sure that everyone has read a fairytale. Pick a fairytale character of your choice and write a letter to them. This could be Cinderella, one of the seven dwarves or even the big bad wolf.
33. Dear Mom Letter: Write a dear mom letter to your mom! You can start with the following sentence: I love this picture of you… Check this post for more ‘Dear Mom’ Letter prompts.

What do you think of these creative letter writing prompts? Let us know in the comments and you can even share your letters with us too!

Marty

Marty the wizard is the master of Imagine Forest. When he's not reading a ton of books or writing some of his own tales, he loves to be surrounded by the magical creatures that live in Imagine Forest. While living in his tree house he has devoted his time to helping children around the world with their writing skills and creativity.

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UniSender moderators view hundreds of emails every day. Most emails contain a sentence or an entire section about why the user received the email.

Usually it looks like this:

Sometimes senders hide the real reason for sending. Sometimes they just want to amuse their subscribers. This is how suspicious, and sometimes simply hilarious, reasons for receiving letters are born.

During my work, I have collected a whole selection of such reasons. Sharing?

Creative reasons are acceptable when it is clear from the content of the email why the user received it. This can be an order confirmation, a delivery notification, or a subscription confirmation email.

You received this letter:

• because you were interested in moonshine recipes;
• because you speak Russian.
• because your age is above average;
• and you are definitely lucky!
• because for some reason we have your address…
• because they subscribed to the newsletter, attended our event or by the will of God;
• because they ordered the most delicious churchkhela in the world;
• since we only have 13 subscribers and need more.

Such reasons can be added to a highly personalized email: with the recipient's name, dynamic content, or substitutions.

Some of the reasons look suspicious: they don't specify a subscription method or there is no link to the site. Moderators often reject such mailings. Understand how the sender assembled the base.

You have received this letter:

• because we think you will be interested in our offer;
• because they found you by query in the search network;
• because your employees made an order on our website;
• because you are our potential partner;
• since we are friends on [a well-known site];
• because you are looking for a job at [one well-known site];
• because in your email settings you are subscribed to receive advertising from partners and third parties;
• because the early ones subscribed to the newsletter on my site.

Email marketing is about respect for subscribers. But sometimes passive aggression seeps into emails:

• If you received an email by mistake, here is a big button to UNsubscribe.

How not to unsubscribe after this?

I'll give you 5 tips on how to correctly write the reason for receiving a letter:

1. Specify the name of your site. A thoughtful ellipsis often angers recipients (and moderators).
2. Add parts . Tell us in detail who you are and where you got the user's email from. This will reduce the chance of unsubscribes and spam complaints. We recommend that you indicate the methods of collecting contacts, detail the names of events and sites.
3. Do not hide the reason for receiving. It is important that this information is visible and easy to read. Postal services recommend writing about the reasons for receiving emails in the header or footer of the email.
4. Specify the site correctly. We will check if the site in the reason for receiving the email matches the sender domain and content of the email.
5. The letter must contain both a link to unsubscribe and the reason for receiving the letter. They do not replace each other.