With its hidden ghosts, jump scares, and devastating adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s novel of the same name, Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House cemented itself as an iconic horror series and annual spooky season watch following its release in 2018, but one moment midway through the show reflected on Crain family Christmas. In an emotional moment in the already tearjerker of an episode that was Episode 6, “Two Storms,” the jaw-dropping one-shot episode, the mention of the topic of “puffalopes” at Nell’s funeral prompted Hugh Crain to speak of his daughter’s love of Christmas.
“She got that from your mother… ‘puffalope.’ She used to tell Nell that her letters. to Santa would be safe and warm in the North Pole if she used a puffalope,” Hugh, played by Timothy Hutton, told his children. “Nellie used to write letters to Santa. Took it very seriously. Formal letters. Didn’t want to call him ‘Santa,’ so, she called him Mr. Claus. She thought ‘Santa’ would be rude. That’s not how you talk to grown-ups.”
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“‘Dear Mr. Claus, this is… Nellie Crain.’ In whatever address we were at. I told her she didn’t need to include that, but she insisted,” he continued, going on to reveal that a young Nell never asked for anything for herself, but instead only requested that Santa bring things for her siblings. “‘Dear Mr. Claus, this is Nellie Crain in Boston. And my brother, Steve, he wants a typewriter. And he’s such a good brother,’ she would say. ‘And my sister Shirley, she could use a new camera, ’cause she’s capturing our memories, you know, and they’re so very precious.’”
The full contents of Nell’s letter were later revealed when Netflix in December 2018 shared a letter that she wrote to Santa as a child. Poster to X (formerly Twitter), Nell in the letter not only requested a typewriter for Steve and a camera for Shirley, but also “a book called The Lottery” for Theo, who was seen in The Haunting of Hill House reading the short story by Shirley Jackson. In her letter, Nell noted that would “probably read it instead of having a tea party with me.” She continued in her letter, “Please get my twin Luke Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle bed sheets. He had a sleepover with a friend who has them, so now Luke wants them too.”
“Mommy says that my letter will get to you safe as we’re putting it in a puffalope. I hope you are having a good year, and the North Pole isn’t too cold right now,” the letter concluded, Nell signing it, “Loved, Nell Crain.”
A young Nell adorned the letter with various drawings, including a gingerbread man with a bent neck, just like the entity that Nell frequently saw throughout her life beginning with her time in Hill House. As it would later be revealed, the Bent-Neck Lady was actually Nell, who as an adult would return to Hill House and hang herself from the spiral staircase, resulting in her falling through time as the Bent-Neck Lady.
The Haunting of Hill House is available to stream on Netflix alongside director Mike Flanagan’s other hit Netflix originals, including The Haunting of Bly Manor, Midnight Mass, The Midnight Club, and The Fall of the House of Usher.
