When it comes to writing letters to Santa Claus, no one tops my nephew Collier.

Collier has elevated writing letters to St. Nick to new levels. This began several years ago when he and his brother, Isaac, decided to cut pictures out of catalogs, paste them on paper and use this as their letter to Santa. The “letter” went on page after page and did serve as a good way for others to know what they wanted. It did cause problems, however, when you tried to match the photos with the catalogs from which they came.

This year, Collier decided to take things in a new direction and make sure there was no confusion when it comes time to talk to Santa.

Collier made his list, adding the name of the catalog and the page number where each item can be found. He then added the description of the item as listed in the catalog.

For example, he wrote, “Popcorn Machine, ABC Catalog, Page 4. What’s movie night without popcorn? Enjoy entertaining others with this unique popcorn machine. $29.99.”

The list goes on and on, some 60 plus items long and multiple pages. Some of the items are rollovers from previous years, his mom told me, proving he’s not just detailed, he’s also persistent.

Collier had his first shot of handing over his list last weekend when he and his brother joined Sutton in visiting St. Nick.

We stood in line for quite a while, with Isaac deciding he was too mature for the entire thing and Sutton deciding she really didn’t like Santa too much anyway.

Collier was undaunted. I was concerned.

“You know Santa may not have time to go over the entire list,” I told him.

He didn’t seem worried.

“I brought him a shorter one,” he said, producing a folded up piece of paper that contained the top 10 or so items he really, really wanted.

All three approached Santa, Isaac bringing up the rear and Sutton starting to scream. Not Collier. He went straight up to Santa, produced his shortened list and started rolling through it.

Santa, fending off Sutton who was wiggling in his lap, nodded his head and told Collier he could remember his list, so he could hang on to it.

“No, you keep it,” Collier said. “I have another one at home.”

Like I said, he’s nothing if not persistent.

– Leada Gore is the publisher of The Hartselle Enquirer. Her column appears each Thursday.