Delivering the holidays, delivering dreams

The Postal Service’s Letters to Santa program is celebrating 102 years of helping make children’s holiday wishes come true.

Although USPS began receiving letters to Santa Claus more than 102 years ago, its involvement was made official in 1912 when Postmaster General Frank Hitchcock authorized postal employees and citizens to respond to the letters.

Today, the popular holiday program is known nationwide as Letters to Santa. The exception is New York City, where the city’s own Operation Santa, the largest in the country, responds to more than 500,000 letters each year. Thousands of volunteers work with Post Offices to respond to letters from children of all ages listing their holiday wishes.

Once again this year, employees, members of the public, charitable organizations and corporations can help USPS respond to the letters at Post Offices around the country by participating in the Letters to Santa program.

Operation Santa

New York City’s Operation Santa program is the largest public adoption Post Office in the country, receiving more than a half million letters a season. With that much Santa Mail it stands to reason they need the public’s help. Every year the iconic James A. Farley Building on Eighth Avenue is visited by tens of thousands of people who come to adopt letters. A kick-off celebration is held, usually during the first week of December. The New York City program has changed very little since the 1940s when it was first opened to the public and continues to thrive much to the delight of both the writers and readers of Letters to Santa.