FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

The Society of Wonder is a yearlong magical mail adventure for children ages 6–10. From January through December, members receive 12 story mailings from characters including Santa Claus, Jack Frost, Cupid, the Easter Bunny, Mother Nature, Father Time, and others. Each mailing continues one larger mystery through letters, clues, missions, puzzles, artifacts, and discoveries.

Your child isn’t simply reading about the adventure. They’re part of it.

The Society of Wonder is designed for children ages 6–10. Younger children can enjoy the characters, letters, physical discoveries, and missions with independent reading or a little adult help. Older children can dig deeper into the mystery, remember clues, make connections, and develop theories of their own. There is one Society and one adventure for all members.

No. The Society of Wonder is first and foremost a story delivered through physical mail. Artifacts, clues, puzzles, and missions are included when they serve the story rather than simply to fill a package with stuff. The story is the product.

Every Society Year includes:

• 12 monthly story installments
• Letters and correspondence from Society characters
• Clues, mysteries, puzzles, and discoveries
• Missions and real-world activities
• Story-related artifacts and evidence
• A Preliminary Membership Certificate for new members
• One additional personalized birthday letter
• A personalized December letter from Santa
• End-of-year Keeper recognition

The exact contents change from month to month because each mailing serves the story.

No. Some installments may contain codes, clues, observations, or puzzles, but they are designed around curiosity and reasoning rather than advanced school knowledge. A child will never be locked out of the story because they couldn’t solve something. This is an adventure, not homework wearing a fake mustache.

Some letters include an optional mission connected to that part of the story. A mission might ask your child to notice something, create something, investigate a clue, ask a family member a question, help someone, or explore the ordinary world a little more carefully. Missions are age appropriate and designed to bring the story beyond the envelope.

Within the story, the Society of Wonder is an old and rather secret organization made up of legendary figures, magical beings, and a few carefully selected humans.

Santa Claus is a member, but the Society stretches far beyond the North Pole.

Jack Frost, Cupid, the Easter Bunny, Mother Nature, the Sandman, Father Time, and others are all part of the same hidden world. They know one another, have histories together, disagree occasionally, keep secrets, and have been quietly doing their work alongside the ordinary world for a very long time.

Most people simply never notice.

The Society exists because magic can create opportunities for wonder, but it can’t make people notice them.

That’s where children come in.

At the beginning of the first Society Year, something isn’t quite right.

Strange things have been happening. Messages have gone unanswered. Old records contain unexplained gaps. Society members are noticing things they can’t quite account for.

And for reasons Santa isn’t ready to fully explain, the Society has begun recruiting children to help.

Over the next twelve months, your child follows one continuing mystery through correspondence from different Society members.

They’ll receive clues, hear conflicting theories, discover pieces of the Society’s history, encounter unusual objects, and gradually begin to understand what is happening.

Each character reveals another part of the mystery.

And not everyone knows the same things.

Think mystery, fantasy, folklore, and interactive storytelling, unfolding through real mail over the course of a year. It’s magical without requiring belief, mysterious without being scary, and funny without treating children as though they’re five. Most importantly, the magical world isn’t somewhere your child has to travel to.

It’s hiding around the edges of the world they already know.

A patch of frost. A rabbit in the yard. A crow watching from a fence. A strange coincidence.

A letter in the mailbox that absolutely wasn’t there yesterday.

The Society simply gives them a reason to look twice.

Your child enters the story as a new provisional member of the Society. They aren’t a passive reader and they aren’t a mythical “chosen one.” They’re one of a number of children the Society has decided it needs.

Throughout the year, they’ll be asked to notice, question, imagine, investigate, create, and occasionally help. Some months may bring a mystery to think about. Others might include a clue to examine, something to make or do, a question to answer, or an object worth keeping somewhere safe. Their participation helps turn the story from something they’re reading into something that seems to be happening around them.

By the end of the year, they’ll discover what the Society has really been asking them to become.

No. Santa plays an important role in the Society, particularly at the beginning and end of each Society Year, but this is not a yearlong Christmas story.

The adventure moves through the seasons and introduces different legendary characters naturally throughout the year. Winter might bring Jack Frost. February may bring correspondence from Cupid. Spring may draw the Easter Bunny into the mystery.

But these characters aren’t simply showing up to celebrate their holidays. They’re members of the Society with their own personalities, relationships, histories, and reasons for becoming involved in the larger story.

There is a central mystery and a growing threat behind the first year’s story, but we deliberately don’t explain it to parents on the website. Your child shouldn’t know what’s coming. Neither should you, unless you really need to.

The story is mysterious rather than frightening. There are unsettling discoveries, unanswered questions, disagreements between characters, and moments when something clearly isn’t right, but the adventure is written for children ages 6–10. The conflict is resolved through things children can actually understand and practice: noticing, questioning, imagining, trying, remembering, helping, and caring.

There are no battles, weapons, graphic danger, or horror.

Yes. Each January begins a new Society adventure with its own central mystery, discoveries, and resolution. The December installment completes that year’s story while opening the door to what may come next.

Returning members will recognize characters, remember past events, understand inside references, and gradually discover more about the Society and its history.

A child can complete one Society Year and have experienced a full story. Children who return get to discover how much larger that story world really is.

The main monthly adventure is shared by Society members so every child receives the same carefully crafted continuing story. We save personalization for places where it can actually mean something.

Every enrolled child receives an additional personalized birthday letter and a personalized December letter from Santa. Information voluntarily provided by parents or shared through correspondence with Society Headquarters may help us make those moments even more personal.

The adventure is shared. The relationship is personal.

Every active member receives one additional personalized birthday letter from Father Time during the Society Year. It is separate from the 12 monthly story installments and written especially for the birthday child. Birthday letters are generally mailed approximately two weeks before the child’s birthday. Postal delivery times vary, so arrival on or before the actual birthday cannot be guaranteed. Very early January birthdays may be mailed earlier because of holiday postal schedules.

December is both the finale of the Society Year and Santa’s turn to write. Unlike the standard monthly story correspondence, the December letter is personalized for each enrolled child. It concludes the year’s adventure, recognizes the child’s place within the Society, and may include selected details supplied by their parent or shared with Society Headquarters during the year.

During enrollment, we’ll ask for the information necessary to create your child’s membership and personalized correspondence. This includes basics such as their first name, birth date, and age, along with optional information parents may choose to provide about interests, accomplishments, experiences, or other details that could make personalized correspondence more meaningful. Parents control what they share. We want personalization to feel magical, not like Santa has acquired a surveillance department.

Yes. Active members may send letters, drawings, questions, theories, mission reports, and other appropriate correspondence to the Society Headquarters PO Box throughout the year. They may address their letter to Headquarters or to a particular Society member.

Writing is completely optional. Children receive the full adventure whether they write frequently, once, or never. A parent or guardian should always know about and approve correspondence sent to the Society.

Individual replies to every piece of mail cannot be guaranteed. Keeper mail is read, however, and things your child chooses to share may sometimes be remembered in later personalized correspondence such as the birthday letter or Santa letter.

Please do not send money, food, valuables, or irreplaceable originals. Unless specifically requested, materials sent to Society Headquarters should not be expected to be returned.

Yes. During the designated Christmas-list period of October 1-December 1, active members may send their Christmas list to Santa through Society Headquarters.

Sending a Christmas list does not guarantee that a particular item will be mentioned in Santa’s letter or received for Christmas. Santa may be magical, but he still does not get to overrule parents! No promises for any gifts will be made, and Santa will carefully clarify that he’ll see what he can do, and that something special awaits.

Very little. Most months require 0–2 minutes of parent involvement, and many require none at all. Occasionally, we may send parents a private note about an upcoming mission, ask for a small piece of information, or request help with a simple part of the experience. Parents and guardians are always considered cleared for Society business.

No. Mystery is part of the story. Keeping important secrets from parents is not. Children will never be instructed to hide Society activities or correspondence from their parent or guardian. In fact, the initial “Preliminary Membership Agreement” children receive upon enrollment specifically states that they need to follow house rules, keep parents informed, and ask for parent help whenever needed.

Real-world Society activities are designed to be age appropriate and subject to normal family rules and parental permission. Children will never be instructed to leave home alone, follow an animal or stranger, meet someone without a parent, provide personal information online, spend money, break family rules, or participate in unsafe activities.

No. The Society never requires children to prove that they believe anything. Curiosity, imagination, questions, and skepticism are all welcome. A child who enjoys imaginative play and knows perfectly well that stories are stories can still have a wonderful time with the Society. We provide the evidence. What they decide about it is up to them.

The child’s core Society experience takes place through physical mail, storytelling, imagination, and real-world activities, not an app or online game. Parents may receive occasional information or instructions electronically, but children do not need a screen to participate in the adventure.

The Society Year runs from January through December. A new adventure begins each January and concludes in December.

Enrollment for the upcoming Society Year is open September 1 through December 1. We close enrollment before the adventure begins because the story is sequential and every new member should experience it from the beginning.

No. Because each month’s story builds on what came before, we do not add new members in the middle of an active Society Year. If enrollment has closed, families can wait for enrollment to reopen for the following year’s adventure.

New members receive a special preliminary mailing before the January adventure begins. It includes their Preliminary Membership Certificate and their first official acknowledgment from Society Headquarters.

This mailing does not begin the annual mystery. It’s the invitation before the adventure.

Membership is available as:

Monthly Membership
Pay $14.95 per month during the Society Year.

Annual Membership
Pay $139.95 in advance for the complete Society Year and save compared with paying monthly.

Annual memberships do not automatically renew. You must sign up again during the enrollment period to continue the story.

Standard U.S. postage is included.

Monthly membership continues through the current Society Year unless canceled.
It does not automatically enroll your child in a new Society Year.
Returning families will have the opportunity to enroll again during the next fall enrollment period.

Yes. Monthly memberships may be canceled during the Society Year. Cancellations must be received by the 15th of the month to prevent payment and production of the following month’s installment.

Because the adventure is sequential, a canceled membership cannot be restarted later in the same Society Year. Your child may enroll again when the next Society Year opens.

Yes. Monthly members may switch to annual membership during the Society Year. The annual savings will apply to the remaining unpaid installments. Payments already processed are not retroactively discounted.

Because personalized correspondence and upcoming mailings enter production in advance, payments are nonrefundable once processed. Please see our Refund and Cancellation Policy for complete terms.

Yes. Families with more than one eligible child at the same mailing address can add an Additional Keeper to a primary membership. The children share the regular monthly Society adventure while maintaining their own individual identities within the Society.

Contact us directly to add an Additional Keeper.

Each Additional Keeper receives their own:

• Preliminary Membership Certificate
• Personalized birthday letter
• Personalized December letter from Santa
• Individual Keeper record and end-of-year recognition

The household receives one copy of the regular monthly story mailing, addressed to all enrolled Keepers, but will also receive additional artifacts and puzzles so each child has their own keepsakes.

Shared household adventure. Individual Keeper identity.

Children receiving Society mail at different mailing addresses need separate memberships. The Additional Keeper option is intended for children sharing one household and one monthly adventure.

Yes. Standard U.S. postage is included in the membership price.

The Society of Wonder currently ships within the United States.

Society mailings are sent out the first week of each month. Because postal delivery times can vary, we cannot guarantee an exact arrival date for regular monthly correspondence.

Personalized Birthday Cards are mailed out 1-2 weeks prior to the child’s birthday.
Personalized Santa Cards (December’s mailing) are mailed out within the first two weeks of December.

If a mailing appears to be genuinely lost, parents can contact Society Headquarters for assistance.

Contact us as soon as possible with your new mailing address. Address changes must be submitted before the 15th of each month for the following month’s mailing. We cannot guarantee replacement of mail sent to an old address when updated information was not received in time.

Yes! A Society membership can be purchased for an eligible child as a gift.

Because this is a continuing yearlong story, gift memberships begin with the upcoming Society Year rather than immediately upon purchase. The child’s preliminary membership mailing arrives before the January adventure begins.

Absolutely! Each Society Year tells a new complete story. Returning members already know the Society, recognize its characters, and remember things new members haven’t experienced. Their history becomes part of the fun. Returning families re-enroll during the fall enrollment period.

Probably. And that’s okay. The Society is designed for a particular season of childhood, not as a subscription they’re expected to keep forever. Growing older doesn’t mean giving up curiosity, imagination, kindness, courage, or the ability to notice something extraordinary in an ordinary world. Eventually, every Keeper is ready for whatever comes next.

We do plan on expanding our story lines to older children as well, with new characters and age-appropriate adventures. Stay tuned for more updates!

The story for the Society of Wonder is planned to span over four consecutive years.

New Keepers always start at year one, and then continue on to each year if they choose to. However, each year’s story arc will be standalone, so it is not a requirement to subscribe for following years if you choose not to.