Santa Claus Really Delivers on Christmas

A small measure of what makes Christmas a special time was played out on the steps of a Hollenbeck retirement home Sunday morning when Delbert Ray Phillips showed up with a present for Viola Butterfield.

And the 87-year-old Butterfield could not have been happier to see Phillips, who was decked out in a red suit and white beard with a “ho, ho, ho” on his lips.

“Santa, I just wanted to come and thank you personally,” the smiling Butterfield told Phillips, a 44-year-old special delivery messenger for the U.S. Postal Service. “This was a real surprise for me.”

Phillips and about four dozen of his colleagues in Los Angeles rose bright and early to make Christmas morning a little more joyful by delivering packages. Officials estimate that about 1,600 such deliveries were made in Los Angeles via Express Mail, the Postal Service’s only mail delivery on the holiday.

Phillips was the only Los Angeles messenger to masquerade as Santa, and his costume drew stares from adults and oohs and ahs from children along his Eastside run.

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The 13-year Postal Service employee says he has volunteered to work every Christmas, mostly because of the smiles the Christmas Day packages bring to children who peep around their front doors wondering what new delights are in store.

“I had one stopover in a housing project last week when I was out in the Santa costume and about 30 kids came out from everywhere and surrounded me,” he said. “I’m going back over there after my run to find out if they got what they wanted for Christmas.”

But unexpected encounters like that with Butterfield also make the Christmas workday worthwhile, he said. Phillips had delivered the package to the receptionist at the Hollenbeck Home and was about to leave when Butterfield emerged from the lobby to shake his hand.

“I really wasn’t expecting to get something today,” said Butterfield, who added that she did not know who sent the package, though it bore a return address from a Canton, Ohio, jeweler.

Phillips’ presence on Christmas morning sometimes evokes disbelief.

“I’ve never gotten any mail on Christmas before,” said Jose Corona, who opened his door with a bewildered look on his face to accept an envelope. The packet held a card from a San Diego friend.

“This is wonderful,” said Cecilia Barrera, who also had never received a Christmas Day package. “I looked out my window and saw this big red thing, and it turns out to be Santa. What a surprise.”

Barrera regretted that her two youngest children had just left with their grandmother to go to Sunday church services. “They would have loved it,” she said.

Phillips, who made more than 20 stops before his day ended, said his family’s early morning celebrations have become routine because of his Christmas Day deliveries.

“They like it and they don’t like it,” he said. “They know I’ve got to work. We’re getting together at my sister’s house this evening, so we’ll still have a lot of family time for ourselves.”