The countdown to Christmas is on and the postal elves at the U.S. Postal Service locations are now starting to accept letters to Santa Claus.
The USPS's Operation Santa wish fulfillment program kicked off its 2021 edition this week.
USPS is now accepting children's “Santa letters” that will be submitted for potential
"adoption" by anonymous gift-givers. The adopters will then fulfill the children's
Christmas wishes by purchasing and sending the gifts.
In 2020, more than 23,000 Santa letters submitted to the program were adopted nationwide, USPS said.
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Since the letter writer’s personal information will be redacted, including their address, a QR Code will be sent to the adopter's email account which they will then take to the post office when they're ready to ship the gift.
Those who wish to participate in the program as potential gift recipients will need to write a letter to Santa and place that letter in an envelope with a stamp and send it to the USPS Operation Santa workshop address at:
USPS provided some tips on writing the letter:
- Make sure it’s legible
- Make sure it has a return address on both the letter and the envelope; make sure to include the full return address — apartment number, directional information (i.e., E Main St, Apt 103) and ZIP Code
- Make sure it has specific asks—including sizes, styles, colors, titles & names
- Make sure it is addressed correctly
- Make sure it has a postage stamp
Once the postal elves receive the letter, they will upload it to USPSOperationSanta.com for adoption.
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Those who want to "adopt" will get a chance to read the letters online and then be able to pick the one they want. They will then receive an email with more details.
All letters must be postmarked by Dec. 10 and will be uploaded online through Dec. 15 for potential adoption.
