Privacy policy
The short version: children's details stay between you and Santa. We never show them on a live, sell them, or use them for promotion, and we delete them on a set schedule (30 days after a visit; free letters are never stored).
Last updated: October 15, 2026
Who we are
Santa Live is run by David White. In this policy, “we” and “Santa” mean Santa Live and David, who runs Santa Live and plays Santa. Email Santa with any question, write to Santa Live, 1230 High Street, Suite 114, Auburn, CA 95603, or call 916-871-9446.
The most important promise: children's information
- Information about a child (a first name, age, wish list and anything Santa should know) reaches us only from that child's parent or legal guardian, through the parent form when they book a visit, or from a parent, guardian or family member with the parent's permission on a Letters from Santa form. They must tick a consent box before anything is used. Children never fill in the forms.
- It is kept in our own private system and can be seen only by the parent who sent it and by David, who uses it to get ready for that family's visit as Santa.
- It is never shown on a TikTok LIVE, posted publicly, sold, or used for promotion, advertising or anything other than your visit unless you expressly agree.
- It is deleted 30 days after the visit, unless the parent ticks “save for my next visit” (see below). A parent can delete it sooner at any time.
- Apart from Santa's list (below), we do not knowingly collect personal information directly from children under 13. On Santa's list, children under 13 are asked to get a grown-up's help. When the “I'm 13 or older” box is left unticked, we only ask for a first name, last initial and city — never a full last name — and the form will not accept more than one letter of the last name. If a comment on a live is from a child under 13, we keep only the first name, last initial and city, never the full last name or the TikTok username. If you think a child has sent us information directly, email us and we will delete it.
What we collect, and why
1. Comments during the TikTok LIVE
When you comment on Santa's live, TikTok shows that comment publicly, as with any TikTok live. Santa (or Santa's list software) takes the first name, last name and city from a comment, together with the commenter's TikTok username, and puts the name on Santa's list (see “Santa's list” below). We do not collect anything else from comments.
Please only comment a first name, last name and city — never an address, school, age, or contact details.
2. Santa's list (the Nice, Naughty and Really Bad list)
Santa keeps one shared, public list. Names reach it from the “Add your name” form on this website and from comments on Santa's lives. The website form asks for a first name, a last name, a city or town, a state or region (optional), and has an “I'm 13 or older” box. If that box is left unticked, the form asks only for the first letter of the last name, never the full last name. Children under 13 should ask a grown-up to help.
- What is shown publicly, on this website and on Santa's TikTok LIVE: the first name, the first letter of the last name, the city, and which list it landed on — like “Emma S. — Denver”. Nothing else — never a full last name, a state, an age or a TikTok username.
- What we keep privately: Santa's entry log keeps what was typed — first name, full last name, city, state or region — and, for live comments, the TikTok username, plus which list, when it was added, where it came from (website or a live) and whether the “I'm 13 or older” box was ticked. It is used only to run the list and to make sure a prize reaches the right person. Only Santa can see it; it is encrypted, never shown on a live, never shared and never used for anything else. For children under 13 (the “I'm 13 or older” box left unticked, or a live comment that is from a child under 13) we only have the first name, last initial and city (and the optional state or region) — never a full last name or a TikTok username — and the name is never put on the Really Bad list.
- How long: until the end of the Christmas season — every name, and the private entry log, is deleted by January 31, 2027. Santa can remove any name sooner, and emailing Santa is enough to have a name taken off and its details deleted.
- Sample names: at the start of the season the scroll is filled with made-up sample names, so it never looks empty. They are not real people.
- Please don't put anything on the list except a first name and a city. Names with rude or hurtful words are refused, and Santa removes anything that slips through.
3. Booking a family visit and the parent form
Visits are booked on this website by a parent or guardian (18 or older). The booking form asks for:
- your name, email address and phone number, and the visit time you choose;
- how many children are joining, and for each child their first name, age, wish list, and anything Santa should know.
We use this only to hold your visit, send your confirmation, contact you about the visit if something changes, and help Santa greet your children by name. Before you can book, you must tick this consent box:
“I am the parent or legal guardian (18 or older) of the children named above, and I am giving these details myself. I agree that Santa Live keeps them in its private system and shares them only with Santa, for this visit. They will never be used for promotion or anything else without my express consent. They are deleted 30 days after the visit unless I tick the box below, and I can ask for them to be deleted at any time.”
How long we keep it. Everything from the form is deleted automatically 30 days after the visit, by a daily clean-up job. If you cancel, it is deleted straight away. If you tick the optional box “Save my family's details for my next visit”, we keep a saved copy of your name, email, phone and your children's details so you don't have to type them again; it is kept until you delete it, and never longer than one year after your last visit.
Your private link. Your confirmation includes a private link where you can see what you sent, save or stop saving it, cancel your visit, or delete everything at once. Please don't share it.
Emails we send. A confirmation to you (with the time and your children's first names only), and a short note to Santa that a visit was booked (with no details about your family).
Santa's calendar. Santa's private Google Calendar gets only the visit time and a label like “Anna's family” — never your children's details.
4. How we keep it safe
Booking details are stored in our own private database (not in an email inbox). The database is encrypted at rest, and the family details inside it are encrypted again by our own system before they are stored. Santa's dashboard is protected by a password and a one-time code from an authenticator app.
5. Prizes
If you win a prize, we use the contact details you give us only to confirm the winner is an adult and to deliver the prize, then delete them. On the live, winners are named by first name, last initial and city only.
6. Emails to us
If you email us, we use your message only to reply.
7. This website
This website has no sign-up, no advertising and no tracking or analytics cookies. We use Vercel Web Analytics to count anonymous visits to this site; it sets no cookies and does not identify you. Our web host keeps standard server logs (such as IP address and pages requested) for security and to keep the site running. To stop abuse of the booking, list and letter forms, we keep a scrambled (hashed) version of the connection address for one day. The only cookie is the sign-in cookie for Santa's own dashboard. If you turn on the Christmas music, your browser remembers that choice on your own device (local storage, not a cookie); nothing about it is sent to us.
Letters from Santa
Letters from Santa are filled in by a parent, guardian or family member (18 or older) with the parent's permission, never by a child.
How letters are written
Each letter is written just for your child by our AI elf helper, using the details you share, and checked by automatic safety filters before anyone sees it. Please read it before sharing it with your child.
Free Letter
- The details you type are sent to the AI service to write the letter, used to make the PDF, then discarded. Nothing personal is stored.
- Exception: if you choose to add your child to Santa's List, the Santa's list rules above apply (a private, encrypted entry log, deleted by January 31).
Print-at-home, mailed and gifted letters
- Your child's details, the letter, the mailing address and your contact details are stored encrypted.
- When they are deleted: 30 days after mailing (or after purchase, for print-at-home letters), or on January 6, whichever is later. So the PDFs and addresses are kept through Christmas, and we can still put things right if a letter goes missing. On that date the PDFs are deleted and every encrypted detail (child's details, letter, address and contact details) is blanked.
- Santa's voice message and its private page (which shows only the child's first name) stay until January 31, then are deleted.
- Money records: a record of each order with no names or addresses (amounts, tax, refunds, payment IDs and dates) is kept for 4 years for tax and dispute records.
- Gifted letter requests on the waiting list are deleted at the end of the season if they are not filled.
Services that receive letter details
| Service | What it receives |
|---|---|
| Anthropic | Letter writing |
| ElevenLabs | Child's first name in the voice script |
| thanks.io | Name and address for mailing |
| Stripe | Payment |
| Resend | |
| Vercel | Hosting and storage |
None of them is allowed to sell the data; it is shared only to make the letter. We never sell it either.
Santa Live (realsantalive.com) is not affiliated with the U.S. Postal Service or its Operation Santa program.
Sharing
We don't sell or rent personal information, and we never give your family's details to anyone for their own use. To run Santa Live we use a few service providers, who handle information only on our behalf and only as needed: our web host (Vercel), our database provider (Neon), our email delivery service (Resend, for confirmation emails), the services listed under Letters from Santa (for letters only), Google (Santa's calendar, which gets only the visit time and a family label) and TikTok (for the live). We may also disclose information if the law requires it.
Your choices and rights
A parent can see, correct or delete anything they sent us, including their children's details, at any time: use the private link in your confirmation, or email Santa from the address you booked with. A parent can also refuse to let us keep their child's details any longer; we will then delete them (and cancel any upcoming visit, since Santa needs the form for the visit). Depending on where you live (for example, California), you may have further privacy rights; contact us and we will help.
Keeping information safe
We keep what we collect to a minimum, limit who can see it to Santa, encrypt it, and delete it on the schedule above.
Changes
If we change this policy we will update the date at the top of this page.