ORLANDO, Fla. — Santa Claus is watching and working with the post office to spread cheer to children who otherwise wouldn't have a merry holiday.
- Post Office collecting letters for Operation Santa
- Program helps provide holiday gifts to the less fortunate
- Starting November 18, people can read, adopt letters online
The U.S. Postal Service is collecting letters for Santa under Operation Santa, a century-old holiday gift program. But this year, the U.S. Postal Service has expanded digital access to the program to 15 cities and regions, including the Central Florida area:
- Orlando, FL
- Austin, TX
- Cleveland, OH
- Los Angeles, CA
- New York, NY
- Philadelphia, PA
- Chicago, IL
- Grand Rapids, MI
- Sacramento, CA
- Baltimore, MD
- Boston, MA
- Denver, CO
- Phoenix, AZ
- Washington DC
- San Juan, Puerto Rico
Children, parents, and families can write letters to Santa Claus and mail them to the following address:
- Santa Claus
123 Elf Road
North Pole
88888
Full instructions for writing the letters, including a letter-writing kit, will be in the "Get Involved" section of the Operation Santa website. The letters need to be postmarked by December 14, but the Postal Service says the sooner the letters are sent, the better.
Starting November 18, the letters will be posted on the Operation Santa website. Anyone can adopt a letter on the site, fulfill the requests in it, and send it through any post office that has "Label Broker" services. You can buy one gift off the letter, or as many as you want.
While the letters will only come from the areas listed above, anyone can go onto the Operation Santa website and adopt a letter.
For full details on how to adopt a letter and become part of Operation Santa, check out the frequently asked questions on the website.
The digital portion of Operation Santa is fairly new — in the past, customers had to go into the post office in person to read the letters and adopt one. Now they can check out the letters for their area online.
USPS says Operation Santa began in 1912 when the postmaster general allowed postal employees and citizens to respond to the letters being sent in the mail to Santa Claus. This year marks the 107th year for Operation Santa.
The agency says the 15 cities chosen for the program this year fit a number of criteria, including interest in the program and community need. The city of Orlando has been participating in Operation Santa for the past 10 years, according to a postal service spokesperson. The post office will be accepting letters from all of Central Florida.
The Postal Service says this is the first year of the program in Austin, Baltimore, Denver, Grand Rapids and San Juan.