TOMS RIVER, NJ — Yes, Montville munchkins, there is a Santa Claus. Just ask his elves from Toms River High School East, who are writing messages to the first-graders in hopes of putting the magic back in Christmas.

Each year, the students in Casey Daniel's journalism class at Toms River East write letters to area children as part of the Elf Letters Project, a long-running effort that has been leading a quiet existence for more than 30 years since Daniel's mother started it when she was teaching at Toms River North. The high school students write personalized letters to kids in the Toms River area whose parents have signed up for them. The letters are postmarked from the North Pole and sent directly to the kids' homes.



As word spread last week of what happened at Cedar Hill School, where a substitute teacher told a classroom of first-graders that Santa isn't real— angering many parents and setting off a controversy on social media — Daniel was put in contact with parents of the Montville students and offered to have her students add the first-graders to the letter-writing list. So far, the Toms River elves have 15 Montville students to write to, and they have requests for more than 100 letters total to pen to children.

"It's the parents' preference" on their children receiving the letters, Daniel said. One of the Montville mothers has been emailing her information from families who want to participate. The letters are being mailed directly to the homes of those children, Daniel said. Click here to get Patch email notifications on this or other local news articles or get Patch breaking news alerts sent right to your phone with our app. Download here.



Daniel's students told WOBM writing the elf letters brings them great joy.



"This is my favorite part of this class, and it brings back the memories and joy of my own childhood," Julia Zulin said.

"Around this time of year, keeping that spirit alive for the younger kids makes it more magical and being able to be the person that gives them that feeling is just amazing," said Mallory Tonra. The letters are personalized thanks to a form that parents fill out that includes not just the basics of the child's name and age, but other details, such as siblings' names and something the child did recently that was good, along with their Christmas wish list. And the students, members of her journalism class and the creative writing class, collaborate, with some doing the artistic handwriting, others creating the words and decorating the letters and more.