Postal Service Launches Operation Santa Program Early This Year

The U.S. Postal Service started its annual Operation Santa program six weeks earlier than usual this year, signaling the start of the holiday season for kids writing to Santa, and for generous adopters who volunteer to respond to the letters.

The Postal Service started the letter-writing phase of the 110-year-old program on Sept. 15, hoping the additional time could equate to many more letters being available to adopt when the adoption phase begins on Nov. 28.

Last year, letters could be sent beginning Nov. 1, 2021. While thousands of letters had been received by the time the USPSOperationSanta.com website opened for letter adoption on Nov. 29, 2021, only 2,500 letters contained the information necessary to be posted. The 2,500 letters were all adopted within 10 minutes of the site opening.

Letter adopters – generous people who respond to the letters by sending gifts to the letter writers, or by simply answering them – will be pre-registered and their identities verified before they’re allowed to take part in the program. The preregistration and ID verification process begins on Nov. 14, the USPS said.

“USPS Operation Santa allows generous customers to grant the holiday wishes of children and families in need,” Michael Elston, the Secretary of the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors, said during the program’s launch in September. “The program is now accepting wish lists for this year’s program. We know this is earlier than usual, but we’re pretty excited to get the season started and we know kids around the country are eager to write to Santa, using these stamps on the envelopes.”

USPS Operation Santa provides an online channel where people can safely and securely help children and families have a magical holiday when they otherwise might not – one letter to Santa at a time. It allows individuals to adopt letters written to Santa and send thoughtful, heartfelt gifts anonymously.

Kids writing letters to Santa need to include their first and last name and a complete return address, which includes the street address, apartment number, if applicable, city, state and ZIP Code. The envelope must have a postage stamp on it to travel through the Postal Service processing systems. The envelope needs to be addressed to: SANTA CLAUS, 123 ELF ROAD, NORTH POLE 88888.

These letters travel to the Santa’s U.S. satellite workshop where they are opened and reviewed, personal information is redacted and they are uploaded onto the Operation Santa website. The website will start showing these letters on Nov. 28, and that’s when letter adopters across the country can start adopting them.

Each pre-registered and verified person can adopt up to 15 letters, and teams can adopt 15 letters per participating team member. Every adopted letter is removed from the site. Adopters who may be unable to fulfill the request can opt to cancel their adoption so that letters can be adopted by another generous person.

Letter adopters will then take care of finding the right gift for the letter writer, who would have included a wish list for Santa. Adopters may respond however they’re inspired to. Some people may fulfill one or two of the child’s wishes, while still others may choose to grant all the wishes listed.

Adopters will pack the gift, and will ship them through a participating post office by Dec. 21, the last day to send a package. Adopters are advised not to include their return address on the gift box since the gift would be from Santa.

Operation Santa started around 1912, when Postmaster General Frank Hitchcock created Santa’s first mailroom – authorizing local postmasters to open up these letters for employees to read and respond. In the 1940s, the program was opened to the general public, and charitable organizations, corporations, and generous individuals started sending gifts to kids on Santa’s behalf.

In 2017, the USPS started to digitize the experience so more people could get involved and adopt more letters. That year, the online program started in New York.

For more information about Operation Santa and how you can be part of it, visit www.uspsoperationsanta.com.