Manhattan Post Office Receives Record Number Of Letters To Santa
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A record number of letters to Santa flooded the main post office in Manhattan this year, but not all will be answered.
For the past 99 years, Operation Santa volunteers known as elves have adopted a letter and anonymously fulfilled a few holiday wishes, but thousands of letters were still waiting to be read by an elf when the letter-adoption period wrapped up Friday.
Volunteers noticed many families this year are turning to Santa for help during tough times.
"People send us notices that they're being evicted from their apartments, that they can't pay their electric bills, so they write letters to Santa," said Pete Fontana, Operation Santa’s head elf.
"Most of them say their mother or one or the other parent is out of a job, so in these economic times, I know it's a good thing to do," said a volunteer.
"It was really fun to do the shopping and the wrapping and imagine the family opening their gifts on Christmas day, so it was really quite thrilling, actually," said another.
While not every letter can be answered, organizers say it's been a successful year for both the elves and the lucky families.