Heritage Letter vs Highlights Magazine

Where they differ

Both are activities clubs. Past that they pull apart: Heritage Letter also covers letters and travel, while Highlights Magazine adds books & magazines.

Highlights Magazine is the cheaper of the two — $47.50/year against $6.65/mo, roughly 40% less on a monthly basis. Whether that gap means anything depends on what turns up: the dearer club is not automatically sending more, and on a gift the up-front total matters more than the monthly figure.

Shipping is the one that rules a club out rather than in: Heritage Letter ships to Not stated, Highlights Magazine to US.

What each one sends

Heritage Letter

Monthly letters written from the perspective of American historical figures, with a photo-and-fact card about that figure and a reproduction artifact such as artwork, a map or a quote. Several parallel series run at once, covering US history, national parks, travel and geography, and the founders.

Highlights Magazine

A monthly print magazine for school-age children with stories, puzzles, hidden pictures, craft ideas and non-fiction features. It is a magazine rather than a letter club — no personalization and nothing to write back to — but it is the cheapest reliable way to get something in the mail for a child every month.

Which one to pick

We are not going to pretend there is a winner here — they are close enough to be on the same shortlist, which is why this page exists. What we would say is that the choice usually turns on the household rather than the club: how much adult time there is, whether the child reads independently yet, and whether you want post that asks something of them or post that simply arrives.

Read the full listings before deciding, and follow through to each club's own site — prices, terms and gift options are theirs to change and ours only to record.