Privacy and cookies

Who we are

Classic Santa makes personalised letters from Father Christmas. We decide how your details are used, and we’re responsible for looking after them. Questions or requests: sales@classicsanta.co.uk.

What we collect

• Your details: your name, email address and mobile number.
• Delivery details: the recipient’s name and the delivery address.
• What goes in the letter: what you type or choose, which can include a child’s name, age, family details, achievements and presents, or the letter you write yourself.
• Your order: what you bought, what you paid and how it’s getting to you.
• How the site is used: see “Cookies” below.
• When something on a page breaks: the error message, with any text it quotes removed, plus which page and what type of browser. It isn’t linked to you and stays on our own server, so we can fix the problem.

Stripe takes your card details directly. We never see or store them.

Children’s details

Our orders are placed by adults, so please only tell us about a child if you’re their parent or carer, or have their parent’s or carer’s agreement. We use what you tell us about a child only to write, print and post the letter, and to look after your order. We don’t send it to Google, Meta or any other advertising or analytics company.

Why we use your details

• To make and deliver your order, and to email you about it. This is needed for our contract with you.
• To keep records such as sales and payments. The law requires this.
• To keep the site secure, put right problems and understand how it’s used, so we can improve it. These are our legitimate interests, and you can object.
• To measure our advertising, only if you agree. You can change your mind at any time.

Who else receives your details

We design, print and assemble our letters ourselves. These companies help us run the shop and only receive what they need:

• Stripe: takes payments, and receives your email address, order total, and delivery name, address and phone number.
• Mailgun: sends our emails.
• Ideal Postcodes: finds addresses when you search for one.
• Royal Mail: delivers your order.
• Laravel Cloud: hosts the site and its data, including its error monitoring (Nightwatch).
• Google Fonts: supplies the site’s typefaces, so Google sees your device’s internet address.

Some of these companies may handle information outside the UK. Where they do, they must protect it as UK law requires. We don’t sell your details, and we only email you about your order.

How long we keep your details

• Letters you don’t buy, baskets and unpaid orders: deleted after 30 days without activity.
• Paid orders, including the letters: kept for our accounts, and so we can answer questions and reprint letters.
• Our count of visits: deleted after 2 days, and where you came from after 30 days, leaving only totals.
• Reports of pages breaking: deleted after 90 days.

Cookies

Needed to run the shop (no choice needed, as your letter and basket can’t work without them):

• classic_santa_guest remembers your letters and basket for 30 days without an account.
• The session and security cookies keep the site working while you use it.
• where_is_my_letter remembers for 30 days that you’ve opened a private order link.

Counting visits: we use the guest cookie to count visitors, see how far they get, and see where people and orders came from, such as a search engine, the name of an advertising campaign or the page they arrived on. This helps us improve the shop. It doesn’t depend on your cookie choices below. The figures stay with us and we only look at totals. You can opt out here, and we’ll also delete today’s record of your visit and where you came from.

Don’t count my visits

Your rights

You can ask us for a copy of your details, or ask us to correct or delete them, limit how we use them, or pass them to you in a portable form. You can also object to how we use them, and withdraw any agreement you’ve given. Email sales@classicsanta.co.uk.

If you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled your details, please tell us. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113.