PHOTO — Girl Leaves Perfect Message to Santa: ‘Leave Presents. Take Brother!’

A little girl had only one request of Santa: “Leave presents. Take brother.” Back in 2017, 9-year-old Jennifer Murphy of Newfoundland, Canada, made headlines with her hilarious message written in the snow requesting more presents and one less brother for Christmas.

Jennifer made the simple request while playing in the snow with her mother, Jo-Ann Murphy, following a snowstorm, according to CBC News. While the pair initially planned to build a snowman, the 9-year-old instead realized that she should seize the opportunity to clear up a few things with St. Nick, and when she decided what she wanted to write, Jennifer made sure Santa couldn’t miss it. In big red letters spray-painted in the snow, Jennifer wrote, “Santa stop here. Leave presents, take brother!” But her message for Father Christmas didn’t stop there. She continued the message on the snowbank on the side of her house, promising Santa that she made an effort to get along with her brother, writing, “Santa, I tried! Brother was worst…”

Jennifer’s message was one many seemed to relate to. A video recorded by her mother and later shared to X (formerly Twitter) by CBC Newfoundland and Labrador racked up thousands of views and plenty of comments. Replying to a photo of Jennifer’s message, one person wrote, “this girl is every sister… Or maybe just me,” with somebody else commenting in a since-deleted message, “Me too. Take my brother away too.” Somebody else quipped, “It’s a very polite request. She doesn’t say HOW LONG, so maybe Santa does for some time, and then return him? (Like a trip to Disney World without your sister, wouldn’t that be great?)”

Thankfully, Jennifer’s brother Ryan, who was 13 at the time his younger sister scrawled her message in the snow, didn’t take the jab too hard. The pair’s mom told CBC News that Ryan expressed no hard feelings over the message and instead laughed it off. Jo-Ann added that her daughter’s message was just a good-natured joke. It is unclear if Santa followed through with Jennifer’s request or if Ryan has since been removed from the naughty list.