When children write a heartfelt letter to Santa, what’s a parent to do? We’ve found a few ideas to help families spirit these precious letters straight to the big guy in red. You can drop off your letter in a local Santa mailbox (and get a reply), receive an email from Old Saint Nick or get a personalized letter from Santa postmarked from the North Pole. Create sweet memories this year with these thoughtful ideas.
1. United States Postal Service: Operation Santa
This long-standing program matches letter writers with kind folks who “adopt” the letter and send the child gifts on their list. Letter writers are not required to register, but to “adopt” a letter, you must sign up and verify your ID. Then, the child’s letter is shared with the gifter (with all personal information redacted). The gifter can then buy and ship up to six gifts to the child. These will be shipped by USPS, and the child’s address will remain private. The gifter pays for all shipping costs. This is a fun way for children in need to get a gift and for families with older children who might have outgrown Santa to work as helpers.
2. Letters From Santa
This cute program was started a long time ago to encourage letter-writing skills and it’s still going strong. Parents write a letter to their child (as Santa) in response to their kid’s letter. Once both letters are written (in different pens, to help a parent impersonate Santa, of course!), you package up both letters and send them, following the instructions on the website. The child will receive Santa’s letter in the mail, complete with a North Pole postmark — all for the cost of two stamps.
3. North Pole Santa Letters
At this site, you can create a personalized letter to your child from Santa on a variety of templates and stationery. The letter is then mailed with a North Pole postmark to your home. You can also order a “nice list” certificate or ornament.
4. Santa Letters From the North Pole
This paid service sells certified letters to send to your kid in the mail. This service offers a variety of personalized letters to choose from — all sent with the North Pole postmark on official North Pole stationery. After you order a letter, you can also add a gift package if you wish. The service offers a money-back guarantee and donates a portion of the profits to Toys for Tots.
5. Dear Santa
Nordstrom offers templates of Santa letters as a physical copy to pick up in-store or to print at home. Santa’s even accepting emails this year.
6. Letters to Santa
This fun website allows kids to fill out an online form and then get an instant message back from Santa himself. The magic happens on the website, so there is no need to give last names, email addresses or other personal information. The site also includes fun online Christmas-themed games to play, all for free.
7. Email Santa
The City of Renton has elves who will respond to 300 children’s emails with a personal snail-mail letter this year. Be sure to follow the instructions and submit your email between Dec.1–10. If you don’t want your address shared, you can opt for an email instead.
8. Local Santa mailboxes
If you are looking for an extra-special place to mail your letter, try one of these jolly and bright mailboxes that will expedite your letter directly to the North Pole.
- Santa’s Mailbox in Downtown Kirkland is open after Thanksgiving until a few days before Christmas. The mailbox is there for children to post their letters to the big guy in red. Volunteer elves will then write a personalized letter back to each child as Santa.
- Edmonds also has a special red mailbox for posting letters to Saint Nick. Kids need to have their letters posted by Dec. 13 to receive a letter in return.
- Chambers Creek Regional Park has a mailbox where children can drop off their letters to Santa. Children can mail their letters between Nov. 27–Dec. 10. Responses will be mailed by Dec. 15.
More holiday cheer: |
