Children’s letters to Santa show their struggles during the pandemic

Santa Claus is coming to town… 

Many of us grew up believing in Santa Claus. To spark the magic of Christmas, we would write a long list of wishes and tell him why we deserved to have them in December. It was an awesome tradition—something we looked forward to during the most wonderful time of the year. At night, mom and dad would sneak out and read our letters, grant our wishes, and act like it was the big fat man behind it. Fun times! 

Did you know that the United States Postal Service (USPS) Operation Santa has been busy doing the work for children for over a century now? It started in 1912, when they received letters addressed to Santa, which inspired Postmaster General Frank Hitchcock to put up a mailroom—“authorizing local postmasters to open up these letters for employees to read and respond.” It was made available to the public in the 1940s, and to get more people involved, the organization made a digital transformation in New York in 2017. To this day, it continues to grow to allow good-hearted people to “adopt” letters from the young ones and make their wishes come true. 

Here’s a short video showing how it works:

For the past years, most kids asked for toys. However, it’s been quite different this time as the letters they have received “show the hardships people are facing because of the pandemic,” according to CBS Los Angeles. These have only made their pure hearts shine. 

For one, Ashley, who’s wishing for “stuff for my family instead of myself” this Christmas.

And Joshuah, who wants to be better at multiplication and spelling.

“We’ve had letters that kids are asking for a cure for COVID,” USPS spokesperson Evelina Ramirez said in an interview with CBSLA. 

Apart from asking for dolls and an elf, Sarah wants COVID-19 to go away so she can finally go back to school.

After sharing his Christmas wishes, Irby reminded Santa to keep himself safe from coronavirus.

Some really tugged at our heartstrings like Nor who hopes to get his happiness back after his mom’s death.

And Ryanne who has had a rough year.

“We rely on the kindheartedness and the generosity of customers who are willing to help those who are less fortunate, Ramirez said.

Thankfully, more people have taken part in the campaign this year to fulfill children’s wishes. As of this writing, nearly 20,000 letters have been adopted. More letters will be shared on USPS' official website until December 15.

Article thumbnails from USPS' Instagram account