Letters to Santa Lead to Special Deliveries

A Santa Ana girl wrote to Santa Claus last month, asking for a new pair of shoes and a better life for her parents.

“You are my best friend,” Nancy wrote. “I am glad you are a good Santa.”

This week, she got a reply: a letter from Santa and, sure enough, new shoes. Workers at the post office in Santa Ana were busy answering letters to the North Pole from hopeful kids and arranging to have some of the Christmas wishes fulfilled as part of Operation Santa Claus.

Since September, when the first letter to Santa arrived, the post office has received almost 1,000 letters addressed to the North Pole, said Joseph Breckenridge, a U.S. Postal Service spokesman. All will get replies from Santa.

Postal workers in their spare time separated letters that showed indications that a child was part of an affluent family from letters thought to indicate a low-income family, he said. Companies, charity groups and individuals then took the letters and bought the presents.

About 20 county residents took up the cause, buying gifts for about 100 children who asked for items ranging from Nintendo games to a dresser.

“We had armloads of presents this year,” Breckenridge said. “This is the first year that it really took off.”

He added that last year--the first time the Santa Ana office held the gift drive--just two people participated. They also raised money through the Startree Project, in which gifts were delivered directly to local elementary schools.

New York post offices started Operation Santa Claus 63 years ago, when employees felt bad about all the wasted letters to Santa and began writing back. The program in New York has since grown to accommodate 18,000 letters a year, said Andy Sozzi, the service’s communications manager.

Still, the New York office has no employees working full-time on the program, relying instead on volunteers and charity groups to help, he said.

To her surprise, Ivette Serrano, 9, of Huntington Beach received a few gifts Friday. A postal carrier delivered a 2-foot-by-2-foot box to her apartment, where she lives with her parents, Albert and Gloria, and brother, Albert Jr.

When she opened the box, unable to wait until Christmas, she found purple slippers, pencils, pens and a note pad--most of what she wanted. It was a welcome reminder of the holiday season for family members, who have so far not had much time for Christmas because her grandfather is seriously ill.

The Operation Santa Claus package “was a surprise to me, because I said, ‘Where did you get that from?’ and we had no idea,” Gloria Serrano said.

Ivette had written to Santa two weeks ago, although she had been a bit skeptical.

“I was afraid to write,” she said. “I really didn’t believe my Dad when he told me that he (Santa) would write back.”

She also wrote that she wanted a job for her father. He got one. He found out last week that he had been hired to paint a house in Costa Mesa.

“I believe in Santa Claus,” Albert Serrano said. “It’s nice to know you are working for Christmas.”

Postal workers at times have difficulties deciding who is genuinely in need of gifts. Workers had to judge from the contents of letters.

“It’s a judgment call,” Breckenridge said. “If someone is asking for 16 Nintendo cartridges and is from Mission Viejo, you can surmise that they are affluent.

“We can be conned. We don’t run a TRW (credit check) on them.”

But postal workers have run across few fake cases. Many, instead, have been heartwarming, Breckenridge said.

One Santa Ana girl, who has nine brothers and sisters, wrote to Santa wanting new pairs of shoes for each of them. She wrote down each of her siblings’ sizes and their names on the letter, postal employee Steve Burr said. The wish was granted.

Other children have written to ask for rent money for their apartment, earrings for their mother and even that separated parents get back together.

Some requests cannot be answered. Grace, a 9-year-old Anaheim resident, wrote in her letter: “I’m not good at school or home, but I try hard, so please here my list: I want or can I have. . . . never mind about toys. I just want my family back in peace and my dad comes back from China. Please try hard! But if failed I still love and trust you.”

Those who donated gifts selected the letters, bought the gifts and brought them to the post office. Postal carriers delivered the gifts on their regular routes, Breckenridge said. Givers remain anonymous.

Many people, he said, just like the experience of giving: “Some have come in just for the pleasure of giving presents to kids because their children are all grown up.”

One woman rushed Friday to buy gifts and get them to the post office so carriers could deliver them in time for the holiday. She had called just a few hours earlier on her car phone and was told about a letter from a girl in Santa Ana who had three sisters and brothers. The woman got presents for all of them, including skateboards and animated toys, Carr said.

“She called in on her car phone and went out and bought,” Burr said.

Susan Young, an El Toro resident, bought musical tapes for a 10-year-old girl, who wrote wondering why Santa never brought her gifts any more.

“She was very disturbed,” Young said. “We went ahead and did what we could.”

A 49-year-old Tustin woman, who did not want to give her name, bought gifts for almost a dozen children, including one boy who only wanted dinosaur stickers.