GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The United States Postal Service (USPS) is now accepting letters to Santa for this year's "Operation Santa."
The program was created by the USPS to match gift-giving volunteers with children and their wishes for Santa on Christmas.
The idea for Operation Santa dates back over a century, when in 1912 Postmaster General Frank Hitchcock authorized local postmasters to allow the community to respond to letters addressed to Santa Claus.
Today, the program runs using a few different steps.
Important things to remember when writing a letter to Santa is to make sure the writing is legible, your full name and address is included, your list of gifts is specific and in order of preference and the gifts are not too expensive.
If more than one person in a family is writing to Santa, all of the letters should be included in one envelope with additional stamps depending on the weight.
Santa's mailing address is:
Santa
123 Elf Road
North Pole, 88888
You must include your full name and return address along with your apartment number in the upper left corner of the envelope. A first-class stamp must be included in the upper right corner.
Templates for letters can be found on the Operation Santa site.
Beginning on Nov. 20, the letters will be carefully reviewed, scanned and posted with personal information removed.
Volunteers can then make an account, become verified and will have the opportunity to adopt letters to purchase gifts for.
Adoptions can be made as a team or individually.
As a team, groups can set goals for the number of letters to adopt, view the progress of the group and adoption status and connect with others to host team events.
As an individual, volunteers can select one or more letters to adopt, or even adopt an entire family's letters.
The last call for writers to send in letters to Santa is Dec. 11. The last call for volunteers to adopt a letter and ship gifts to ensure holiday delivery is Dec. 18.
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