Letters To Santa Program

Rehobeth Beach, Delaware Postmaster Rick DeWitt (shown here) has volunteered to take on the additional duty this holiday season of being one of Santa's letter writers as part of the national "Letters to Santa" program

According to an article that appears on the DelMarVaNow.com website, in 1912, Postmaster General Frank Hitchcock authorized local postmasters to allow postal employees and citizens to respond to letters addressed to Santa.

In 1940, mail volume for Santa increased so much the Postal Service invited charitable organizations and corporations to participate and provide written responses to the letters and small gifts to the children who wrote them. 

According to the U.S.P.S.,  post offices around the country let charitable organizations, major corporations, local businesses and individuals adopt letters to Santa.

When asked how many letters to Santa the Post Office receives each year, Freda Sauter, a Postal Service spokeswoman in Baltimore is quoted as saying,  "It's difficult to know an exact figure, because some offices may participate one year and not the other. Nationwide, we believe it's easily in the millions (of letters.) You do not have to be a postal worker to respond to letters."

To read the entire article, click here.

For a list of particpating post offices, click here.