For over 100 years, the US Postal Service has been receiving letters to Santa from children across the country. In 1912, Postmaster General Frank Hitchcock authorized local postmasters to let employees and citizens respond to these letters in what became known as 'Operation Santa'. As the volume of mail for Santa increased drastically in the 1940's, the Postal Service began inviting charitable organizations and corporations to participate by providing written responses and small gifts. This tradition has endured for over a century and continues on today as the "Letters from Santa" program, which now handles millions of letters to Santa each year.
If you'd like to take the magic of Santa to another level for a child in your life, follow these instructions to receive a response from Santa - complete with official North Pole Postmark! While there is no additional cost aside from postage to participate in this program, letters from Santa must be received by the Anchorage, AK, Postmaster no later than December 15. Santa’s helpers in Anchorage, AK, will take care of the rest!
As it's our mission to champion hand letter writing, we at Yay!Mail are especially excited to offer a line of products that can help families participate in the "Letters from Santa" program. Our Santa Aerogram provides fun writing prompts and activities to guide kids in crafting their messages to Santa.
Parents can use our Santa Stationery Set to write a response as Santa on official Santa letterhead. Includes golf foil seal and addressing stickers to complete a polished look.
We also offer a Santa's Nice List Certificate that can be tucked in with our Santa Stationery to further reward children for an entire year of good behavior!