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Help answer sad letters to Santa written by
children who need a brighter Christmas
You can adopt real letters to Santa written by underprivileged kids
and send your gifts directly to the children who wrote to
Santa. There’s no middle man or charity; it’s micro-philanthropy,
direct from you to a child, when you give in this way.
Every December since 1912, the US Postal Service ® has permitted the
public to read and adopt children’s letters to Santa. Many are
written by kids and Moms who ask only for “a warm coat”, “new
shoes,” or other basic necessities. Volunteers at Christmas may mail
their gifts directly to the child or family who needs a brighter
Christmas.
In 2019 USPS Operation Santa ® launched a new website making the
letters available for adoption online. After selecting letters to post
at the site, the elves at the USPS always send every letter on to
Santa, so he can send every child his gifts, too.
Volunteers print out letters they adopt from the site, along with an
encoded address label to go with the letter. To protect children’s
privacy, USPS ® staff redact family names and addresses from letters.
Volunteers may mail their gifts using the encoded label at any of
19,000 postal branches nationwide offering label scanning. See our
Locations page to find one. Gifts
must be mailed by December 20th, in time for delivery by Christmas.
If you are struggling financially and not able to buy gifts for your
kids this year, our volunteers may be able to help out. Santa will
send his gifts too, of course! Your family’s letters should be sent
in one envelope and mailed no later than December 14. This year
volunteers have been adopting letters faster than postal service
employees can post them online, so your chances are good. But we urge
you to fully read our Writing to Santa
page for important tips, and
for Santa’s new street address for those in need seeking extra
gifts.
In New York City and Chicago, the USPS is still offering the
traditional walk-in program, where the public may read letters in
person this month. You’ll find the addresses and schedule for those
branches on our Locations page .
After scanning children’s letters and posting them at the site, USPS
elves send every letter on to Santa at the North Pole. If you’re a
volunteer who has kids, explain to them you want to help Santa out by
sending extra gifts to a child whose parents can’t them buy much
this year. Assure them that Santa will get their letter too, and
they’ll get gifts from him as well.
Be An Elf adopts letters every year according to the donations that we
raise. We choose letters asking for new shoes, clothes and other basic
necessities, and then mail every Mom a Target gift card. We have faith
that the Moms know best what their kids want and need. We only adopt
letters from the USPS and not from people who write to us.
If you don’t have time to adopt a letter yourself or require a tax
deduction, please make a tax-deductible gift to Be An Elf, and we’ll
be able to get more gifts to low-income kids in time for Christmas
morning.
Be An Elf is a charity supporting USPS Operation Santa ® by building
public awareness, recruiting new and former volunteers, offering
volunteers a guide to volunteering, and providing tips to low-income
families for writing letters.
While not affiliated with USPS Operation Santa ®, Be An Elf also
supports it by encouraging media coverage of the USPS program and
creating public awareness of it through a major in-kind grant from
Google in the form of free advertising.
Some volunteers feel alone and sad over the holidays, and find comfort
and inspiration being part of this. Others have families, and bring
their kids to teach them the meaning of Christmas.
Whether you adopt a letter in person or online, or simply donate to Be
An Elf, you’ll catch the true spirit of the holidays, and help put
smiles on the faces of needy kids on Christmas morning. Thanks for
being an Elf! Please let friends know BeAnElf.org is an excellent
online guide to the program.Please let friends know BeAnElf.org is an
excellent online guide to the program. Please let friends know that
BeAnElf.org offers excellent information about the program.
Explore this website and then go to USPSoperationsanta.com
to start reading letters!
_(More below)_
_Below is a 2011 news segment with Be An Elf’s Patrick Reynolds
about the USPS program. Operation Santa is now mostly online, but this
report captures the heart feelings of volunteering, and our website
accurately reflects today’s online program. WE ASK NEWS EDITORS TO
COVER USPS OPERATION SANTA STORY, BUT TAG COVERAGE WITH A MENTION OF
OUR CHARITY, BEANELF.ORG, SO THAT NEW VOLUNTEERS CAN ACCESS A DETAILED
GUIDE TO THE PROGRAM.
_
BE AN ELF IS A TAX-EXEMPT CHARITY WHICH SUPPORTS THE WONDERFUL USPS
PROGRAM. We recruit and then provide new volunteers with excellent
tips on our How to be an Elf
page, create public awareness of the program, and offer tips for kids
and parents to write more effective letters on our Writing to Santa
page. Since 2007, Google has
given us $10,000 per month in free advertising, and we have been able
to recruit thousands of new volunteers over the years.
Please make a tax-deductible gift to Be An Elf. Also share this
website in your social media. If you like, edit one of our Sample
tweets and posts .
If you can’t volunteer to adopt a letter to Santa and send gifts, we
ask you to donate online to Be An Elf or
give by check to support our
group’s mission and letter adoption. Your tax-deductible gift will
be used to send gifts to needy families, create public awareness of
the program, recruit and offer tips to new volunteers, and help kids
and parents write more effective letters when seeking extra gifts
through the Operation Santa ® program.
Our mission is to make more underprivileged children smile on
Christmas morning and to inspire people with the real spirit of
Christmas. Together we can bring joy to more children on Christmas.
Great Tweets & Posts
Read More Letters to
Santa
Help us bring smiles to needy kids on Christmas morning.
Donate Now
Only volunteers sending gifts should contact us. Santa will not see
your message here! If you're seeking gifts, contact Santa's Christmas
volunteers through our Writing to Santa
page. If you want to give
gifts, click below.
Contact
THANKS FOR SIGNING UP!
You can unsubscribe at any time using the Unsubscribe link at the
bottom of every email.
JOIN OUR VOLUNTEER ELVES
Get info about how you can send gifts directly to a needy child, and a
reminder about this program next Christmas. If you're seeking gifts,
we'll tell you where to write Santa.
First Name
Last Name
City
State/Province
Postal Code
Email Lists
I want gifts
I want to donate
I want to send gifts
Sorry, we could not complete your sign-up. Please contact us to
resolve this.
Operation timed out, please try again.
By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive emails from: Be
An Elf, 8117 W Manchester Ave , Suite 5, Playa del Rey, CA, 90293, US.
You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the
SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are
serviced by Constant Contact.
REMIND ME TO BE AN ELF
After signing up, you will receive occasional emails during the
Christmas season. We will never share your information with third
parties, and you can unsubscribe at any time using the link at the
bottom of the few messages we send. Thank you for being an Elf!
YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY SUBSCRIBED!
Be An Elf is a tax-exempt 501c3 children's Christmas charity.
Contributions are tax-deductible. We are not affiliated with USPS
Operation Santa® but we support it by creating public awareness of
the program online and in social media, by recruiting and orienting
new volunteers to the program, and by offering tips to needy families
writing to Santa. Be An Elf also uses donations to adopt letters to
Santa and send gifts to the kids who wrote them. We will never share
your info with third parties; see Be An Elf's privacy policy
. ©2020 Be An Elf - All rights
reserved.
THANKS FOR SIGNING UP!
You can unsubscribe at any time using the Unsubscribe link at the
bottom of every email.
JOIN OUR VOLUNTEER ELVES
Get info about how you can send gifts directly to a needy child, and a
reminder about this program next Christmas. If you're seeking gifts,
we'll tell you where to write Santa. Please check only one list
First Name
Last Name
City
State/Province
Postal Code
Email Lists
I want gifts
I want to donate
I want to send gifts
Sorry, we could not complete your sign-up. Please contact us to
resolve this.
Operation timed out, please try again.
By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive emails from: Be
An Elf, 8117 W Manchester Ave , Suite 5, Playa del Rey, CA, 90293, US.
You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the
SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are
serviced by Constant Contact.
REMIND ME TO BE AN ELF
YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY SUBSCRIBED!
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