Willow Glen Resident

Community

Post office elves help Santa with letters

By Mayra Flores

Houses are brightly lit and trees twinkle in the windows of some, but the big man in the red suit and the white beard couldn't do his annual job without the help of a few elves at the Willow Glen post office.

Susan Anderson and Christine Hernandez give the big guy a hand every year by reading and answering the letters written to him by children all across the South Bay and surrounding cities.

"Anything addressed to Santa Claus or North Pole gets rerouted and sent to me," Anderson says with a smile. She's been at the helm of the Santa Letter Writing Program in San Jose for the last 10 years.

The U.S. Postal Service has had the program for the last 100 years, though not at every post office.

The program receives on average 1,000 letters every holiday season beginning in August from children asking for toys, some asking for forgiveness and others asking for more than help.

Volunteers sign a release form and take stacks of letters that need a response, but about 50 percent of the letters do not have return addresses.

"Some have incomplete addresses and others just say, 'To Santa,' " Anderson says. "Some of our letter carriers are really good and when they pick up one of these, they write the address on them, but there are so many that most just stay in my office."

Although most letters come with the appropriate postage, many have a more creative solution for that.

"Some draw on stamps," Anderson laughs.

Large manila envelopes, small letter envelopes and even folded pieces of paper marked "Deliver to Santa, North Pole" make up the stacks of letters.

"We get all kinds of letters," Anderson says. "We get funny ones; there's sad ones, and there's some that just ask for a tree."

This year's letters came to her in all shapes and sizes. Many children asked for the popular Nintendo Wii; others asked for dolls and trendy car toys.

"Most letters are confessionals of sorts," she says.

One addressed to "Santa Claus, North Pole" reads: "Dear Santa, I'm sorry I didn't behave, but can I have a Playstation and a Wii?"

Another reads, "Dear Santa, I wasn't a good girl this year, but I can be better. ... All I want this year is forgiveness and some Ugg Boots."

The majority of the letters consist of lists or cutouts of wanted items, but another portion of the letters are of a more somber nature.

"There are really, really needy families out there," Anderson says. "We get a lot of letters from the children of the farm workers in Watsonville living in those trailers, and they are freezing. They don't ask for toys; they ask for blankets and heaters. They make you cry, and it's those that you never forget."

These letters receive slightly different treatment. Anderson has over the years found volunteers who have wanted to do more than answer the children's letters and have gone out on their own and fundraised to fulfill requests like those from the Watsonville children.

"We are little miracle workers, not big miracle workers," Anderson says.

This year, she received a letter from Florida from a family in financial need and with a dying child asking Santa for help. The letter was forwarded to the Make-a-Wish Foundation.

"It's letters like this that break your heart," she says. "We try to stay local when we help those families out."

One family near Winchester Boulevard in San Jose was the beneficiary in 2005 of a special volunteer effort--volunteers brought them a tree, gifts and dinner on Christmas Eve. The following year, the same family came into the post office and wanted to do the same for another family.

"The family was so touched that they went from being receivers to participants," Anderson says. "This is my favorite part of doing what I do every year."

Helping these special cases has become almost a calling for postal carrier Christine Hernandez.

Hernandez has been reading and checking lists for the last two years, and she raises the money needed for these families through bake sales and selling homemade burritos and enchiladas.

"You can go around and ask for money, and no one gives," Hernandez says, "but when you feed them, it's a good thing and they're all hungry. It's a good thing they like my cooking."

She picked out four letter-writers to help, including one from a homeless person living out of a car.

"We gave the homeless person two gift cards," Hernandez says, "one for gas and the other for McDonalds."

The holidays aren't the same for everyone in the valley, she says.

"A lot of people don't realize that some people don't have a Christmas," Hernandez says. "It's hard times for a lot of people, and the kids are our future; they need something to keep them going."

The holidays are important to every child's experience growing up, she says.

"As a kid, I would hide behind the sofa to wait for Santa," Hernandez says. "We want kids to still believe that there is a Santa, and it could be anybody."

For more information, visit www.usps.com.