NEIGHBORS : First-Class Mail : The post office Santa had received hardly any letters until Montalvo School students got busy with wish lists.

Ho, ho, ho . . .

Montalvo School has saved Ventura County’s Christmas spirit.

As of Dec. 12, the main post office in Ventura had received just three letters addressed to Santa. In the words of Lisa Almanzan, the post office’s designated Santa-letter respondent, “It was strange.” Almanzan said the norm in past years was about 20 to 30 Santa letters per week this late in the season. All the Santa letters in the county go through the main post office.

But on Friday the Grinch was hit over the head by the students at Montalvo, who posted about 70 letters to Santa (a.k.a. Almanzan).

How did she deal with the onslaught? In a user-friendly manner. “We put a letter in our computer so we can print one out at any time,” she said. “It says Santa got your message and he’ll try to get you everything--well, not everything, but most of what you wanted.”

Almanzan said she remembers sending letters to Santa herself, “but I don’t remember getting a response.”

Regardless of what most local children seem to think, there really is a Santa Claus. In fact, there are 20, dispatched by the Western Temporary Services office in Thousand Oaks to greet children in department stores, hospitals and the like. Before they set out, each Santa is given some advice.

Here is a sampling, as relayed by office manager Patty Simpson:

* “Try not to spend more than a minute and a half with each child.”

* “If he asks for a brother or a sister, tell him he has to ask his folks. And we always refer to them as ‘folks,’ not ‘parents,’ because these days you don’t know.”

* “Be jolly, and grin and bear it. Sometimes it gets really hard. You’ve got to be jolly Saint Nick. If you can’t be jolly Saint Nick, we don’t need you.”

Speaking of Santa, he seems to have caught up with the times. After all those years of operating a reindeer-powered sleigh, he’s now driving an internal combustion-powered truck. A dump truck, to be exact.

That will be his mode of transportation today when he dumps off three tons of snow at the “tot holiday party” outside the Borchard Community Center in Newbury Park. The snow comes courtesy of Conaway Ice Distributors of Ventura.

The party, for children age 5 and younger, will last about 1 1/2 hours.

The hope is that the snow will be around for about 24 hours, but that depends on Mother Nature.

“We’re hoping for bad weather, which would be good weather,” said Tracy Tucker, an organizer of the event. “We just don’t want wet weather.”

There won’t be a Santa at the Ventura County Rescue Mission’s annual Christmas party on Sunday, but there will be an estimated 250 to 300 children and an equal number of toys.

“We usually get single-parent families who come in with two, three or four kids,” said Bobby Jones, one of the party planners. “They don’t have the money to give their kids anything.”

The gifts, both used and new, have been donated by businesses and individuals.

“We wrap them and divide them by age and sex and give them to the kids as they come in,” said Jones.

Beginning at 1 p.m., 80 children at a time will be allowed through the mission’s doors at 234 E. 6th St. in Oxnard.