USPS to post letters to Santa online; public can adopt letters, send gifts

Operation Santa program goes digital across country for first time

SAN ANTONIO – For over a hundred years children have been sending letters to Santa via the United States Postal Service.

The USPS understands that the pandemic has hit some families pretty hard this year and that some of those letters really need to get to Santa...and that’s where Operation Santa comes in.

“This year has been a struggle for so many people in more ways than one and Christmas and the holidays are weighing so heavily on so many minds. This is a way for the United States Postal Service to help Santa and reach as many families and children as possible,” Christina Moreno, public relations for San Antonio with the USPS said.

Moreno explains that Operation Santa has been around for years, but only in certain cities digitally.

“In 1912 post master Frank Hitchcock allowed post masters and their employees and community to adopt letters, so we have continued on the tradition and it is now known as Operation Santa,” Moreno said.

This is the first time it’s digitally available across the country to anyone. It allows children to write letters to Santa, and the USPS will post those letters on its Operation Santa website, where people can adopt letters and send children gifts.

Here’s how it works:

  • Write your letter before Dec. 15.
  • Put it in an envelope.
  • Write in your full name, street address, city, state and zip code in the top left corner of the envelope.
  • In the middle of the envelope write in Santa’s address: Santa Claus, 123 Elf Road, North Pole 88888.
  • Use a USPS first class stamp, drop in the mailbox.
Santa letters image2. (KSAT)

Once received, that letter will receive a QR code when its posted online.

“The QR code goes to the recipients, so the customer who is buying the gifts never sees the address so it keeps the child safe,” Moreno said. “Then those adopting a letter, can purchase gifts, wrap them and send them back via USPS before Christmas.”


About the Authors:

Sarah Acosta is a weekend Good Morning San Antonio anchor and a general assignments reporter at KSAT12. She joined the news team in April 2018 as a morning reporter for GMSA and is a native South Texan.

Azian Bermea is a photojournalist at KSAT.