I was asking just last week, do kids still write letters to Santa Claus? For many children, the Letter to Santa was their first exposure to letter writing and a sneaking way for parents to teach their children the etiquette of personal correspondence. But now in this time of text messages, emails, and social media direct messaging, are the parents even aware of letter writing and getting that all so important wish list to the big guy at the North Pole?

Fast forward a few days to just last weekend and I uncovered some answers to some of those questions. Yes indeed, children still write letters to Santa, and the United States Postal Service is there to help. Who better than the USPS to promote letter writing, even if just to Santa? And they do it in an intriguingly organized program that nearly everyone can join, Operation Santa.

In 1912 (that’s 110 years ago!), Postmaster General Frank Hitchcock created Santa’s first mailroom and officially authorized local postmasters to open up letters sent to Santa, and when possible, to answer the children. Sometime in the 1940s the program was open to the public and the current program was born. Operation Santa has four “steps.” Children write and mail letters to Santa (if they, or their parents, need help with that, the USPS even has letter templates available on line), volunteer letter “adopters” read the letters and as much as they can fill the children’s wishes, they buy, wrap, and ship the presents, and the kids get a surprise under the Christmas  tree. 

There is more to the program than that simple outline but not much. Letters have to go to an official Santa address (123 Elf Rd., North Pole 88888). People who are interested in adopting letters must be vetted by the USPS. Only US residents can send and adopt letters.

I tried to find out how many children have had Christmas wishes granted through this program or how many individuals and teams have adopted letters but couldn’t dig those figures up. That might be proof that the USPS is serious about their commitment to keep personal identifying information of letter writers and adopters secure. I also tried to find out why I never heard about this before. You readers know better than anybody how arcane some of the information I share is, yet this didn’t even make it to my radar screen.  If you’re as intrigue by Operation Santa as I am, you can find all the information you could even ever want, or at least enough to join up, at the official Operation Santa website.  

Merry letter writing to all, and to all a good present!

On a related note, December 7 was National Letter Writing Day. In a day of quick text messages and emails, letter writing sets you free to pour your thoughts out completely, taking part in an activity so special you may call it noteworthy. Naturally we at ROAMcare had some ideas about letter writing in general. Read our letter to letter writers everywhere here.

📷 USPS Operation Santa