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Jobs for elves who can spell
By Deborah Taylor-Hollis
Right after Thanksgiving every year, I set aside an evening for "Santa." I plan for it early in the season, and I try to make space for it every year because it makes me feel like it's Christmas. I'm not talking about fixing a red suit or making sure my husband has some special night of football. I'm talking about the real Santa--the big guy, the one with the beard and the reindeer treats in his pocket.
Santa needs my help every year. Aside from all that ho-ho-ho-ing, cookie-eating and toy-making, Santa has another very important job to do. Santa must answer his letters. And, because Santa is so very busy, he lets some of the elves help him every year. I'm an elf through and through.
Santa's mail starts out as the hopes and dreams of kids everywhere. They get all their wishes in good order, write them down as best they can and then put their requests in envelopes. Some are mailed with stamps; some with only drawings. They say everything from "North Pole" to nothing more than "S. Claus." And there are a lot of them.
Gus Ruiz, a post office spokesman in San Jose, has worked for the U.S. Postal Service for 35 years and has always been involved with the seasonal deluge of Santa letters. He is now running the Santa letter program out of the post office at 1750 Meridian Ave. in Willow Glen. With the Santa program, we normal non-elf types can get involved, doing anything from just answering a few letters for the big man right up to "adopting" a family that really needs some help. And Gus, "Senior Elf on Site," has a busy job.
"They [the letters] start as early as July," he explained. "For countless numbers of years, letters would just come in, and we would just pick an office to put them in, and then they would just send them out [if people volunteered to answer them]. It was never well organized."
"Many of the letters we get are not just asking for toys," he continued. "They are asking for clothes or food or jobs for their parents, and letters from parents asking for things they cannot provide for their own children. When you see an adult writing to Santa, you know they are in dire straits and are looking for someone to help. We connect them--not only the letter-writer to Santa, but also the letter-writer to someone who can help."
Gus said the volume of letters far exceeded the number of available volunteers; so, the post office eventually teamed up with the Volunteer Exchange program of Santa Clara County.
Not every letter written to Santa falls into the "desperate" category. The largest percentage of the mail is just what you would expect--small children with big wish lists and poor grammar. They, too, need St. Nick to reply to their dreams.
According to on-site manager Velda Lovato, potential letter-answerers have several options. "Call 723-6107 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., and give your name and address to get letters to answer. We have already received hundreds of phone calls. People can come down here if they want, and come to a room to write their letters on their own stationery with their own stamps. Or, they can call and get letters sent out to them. We already have at least 300 people who have called."
There is also that smaller but more poignant stack of letters that needs more than a simple reply from Santa. Aside from the volunteer program with which it has partnered, the post office is looking for "angels" to help with those hard cases. It requests that you come in person during business hours.
"They can come in and look through the letters," Lovato says, hoping good Samaritans will find a family or request that they wish to fulfill. Even the postal employees want to get personally involved. "Everybody here wants to answer the letter and adopt the family. It's a really good feeling."
Gus Ruiz echoes that sentiment. "I'm still a kid at heart, and I still believe in Santa Claus. There are people out there [who] are less fortunate than ourselves, and we are living in very fortunate times, so we should start thinking of others."
Meanwhile, for those who want to help with the mail, remember that elves never make promises. They do use colorful stationery and red ink when appropriate, and they frequently mention what reindeer eat and how fun it is to build toys. They also remind children that Santa keeps two lists: nice and naughty.
Readers can contact Deborah at DTHollis@metronews.com.
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
