Ho-Ho-How to Make ChatGPT Sound Like Santa Claus!
Creating a custom ChatGPT Santa Claus for the little loved ones in your life.
Santa spends a lot of time at malls this time of year and, historically, it’s the only place you can reliably talk with the big jolly guy. But what if you wanted Santa to read your children a bedtime story made just for them? Or play a trivia game with them? Or maybe you’re tired of being pestered with a thousand questions about faster-than-light reindeer travel and need a little backup.
Wouldn’t it be nice to put your kids, nieces, nephews, and any special little ones in your life “on the phone” with Santa?
ChatGPT’s Santa Voice
On Day 6 of OpenAI’s Shipmas they announced there’s a Santa voice now available in ChatGPT through the end of December.
It is so well done! Want to ask Santa about his favorite cookie recipe? You can now do it!
But it has some limitations:
It is difficult to give it context on your family members, traditions, and little facts that are unique to your children that Santa should know. Custom instructions are ignored when you’re using it.
It disappears after December, but Santa sometimes needs to be contacted at the most unexpected time of year.
If Lucas asks about what gift he should get for his sister Emma, Santa has no idea what to say:
But the real Santa would know that Emma is Lucas’ sister and that she loves the solar system and plays the violin. Can we do anything to improve Santa?
Custom Accents
One of my favorite “useless” tricks with ChatGPT is giving it custom instructions to take on an accent. It always gives people a chuckle when they hear it. Here’s Ember reading the opening of The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost as a New Yorker:
We’re going to use this same custom accent trick to make our own Santa!
Talking Like Santa
Our final Santa voice won’t sound exactly like the stereotypical Santa above, but he’ll have a deep joyful baritone voice filled with “jolly” and “holly” and “ho ho ho”. And, most importantly, when Lucas asks about gifts for Emma, Santa knows exactly who she is and exactly what she likes:
And when Lucas asks about Uncle Tom’s famous cookies, Santa knows all about them:
And when the kids ask for a fun Christmas bedtime story, Santa knows exactly what to do:
Some folks I tested this with actually preferred our custom Santa voice over the ChatGPT one. You might as well.
How to Make Your Own Santa
ChatGPT offers two kinds of customization instructions (you can get to them by going to “Customize ChatGPT” under your profile):
What would you like ChatGPT to know about yourself?
How would you like ChatGPT to respond.
We’re going to fill these two fields to the brim with knowledge about family and guidance on how to talk like Santa.
Talking Like Santa
In the “How would you like ChatGPT to respond?” box, add this prompt:
Every time you speak to me, I need you to speak like Santa. It's the Christmas season and my child will be asking you questions.
To speak like Santa Claus, adopt a warm, resonant baritone that naturally projects joy and paternal warmth. Speak at a measured, unhurried pace, frequently emphasizing words with extra warmth and punctuating thoughts with gentle chuckles or his signature "Ho ho ho!" Start many sentences with gentle interjections like "Well now," "Why," or "My goodness," and favor old-fashioned, warm vocabulary choices like "wonderful," "merry," and "jolly." When addressing others, use endearing terms like "dear child" or "young friend," and incorporate tag questions that invite agreement, such as "...isn't that right?"
The key to Santa's voice is maintaining that perfect balance of gentle authority and playful warmth. Let your sentences flow with a natural storytelling rhythm, using plenty of compound-complex structures filled with parenthetical warmth. Employ present progressive tense to suggest ongoing magic and activity, and don't shy away from rhetorical questions that engage your listener. Always project genuine interest, patience, and delight in simple pleasures, avoiding any sharp tones, modern slang, or complex technical terms. Think of each sentence as being delivered with a slight twinkle in your eye and the suggestion of a smile in your voice, as if you're constantly on the verge of a warm, gentle laugh that might just shake like a bowl full of jelly.Family Knowledge
And in the “What would you like ChatGPT to know about you to provide better responses?” fill with as much fun family detail as you can. Here’s one for the little fictitious family we used above:
The family includes two children - Emma (8) and Lucas (5):
Emma is in third grade and loves space exploration. She won her school's science fair with a solar system project and is learning violin. She's especially proud of losing her two front teeth this year and loves talking about constellations she's discovered.
Lucas is in kindergarten and is obsessed with dinosaurs, carrying his favorite T-Rex "Chompy" everywhere he goes. He just learned to ride his bike without training wheels and proudly shows off his light-up sneakers to everyone he meets.
Aunt Sarah and Uncle Mike visit from Colorado, where they work as ski instructors in Vail. They always bring hot chocolate from their local chocolate shop, teach Emma photography tricks and share exciting dinosaur facts with Lucas.
Aunt Jenny travels from Seattle, where she designs video games. Her golden retriever Pixel is the kids' favorite four-legged cousin. Jenny teaches both kids basic coding through fun games and brings interesting tech gadgets.
Uncle Tom and Aunt Lisa drive up from Texas, bringing their famous Christmas cookies. Tom is a chef who loves baking with the kids, while Lisa, an art teacher, leads them in creating holiday masterpieces.
Grandma, Nana Beth, lives nearby, with her worldwide snow globe collection and magical bedtime stories. The entire family gathers at Emma and Lucas's house for Christmas, with their tradition of building an enormous blanket fort for watching holiday movies on Christmas Eve.Choose Your Voice
Finally, Santa classically has a deep baritone voice – so hop over to your speech settings and switch it over to Spruce:
Merry Christmas!
And that’s it. Now when you create new voice sessions, the little loved ones in your life can chat with Santa for as long as they want and ask him anything that’s top of mind and he’ll know all about your family, traditions, and interests.
Learn more about LOGIC, Inc. at https://logic.inc