Santas Anonymous : Making Sure Thousands of North Pole-Bound Letters Don’t Go Unanswered Is a Big--but Rewarding--Job for Southland Volunteers

Cody, a 3-year-old boy with cancer, wrote Santa Claus a letter asking for a flashlight for himself and bicycle training wheels for his brother.

Touched by the note, postal worker Patty Boren mailed him a flashlight and a bike shop gift certificate for the wheels.

Boren and many other postal employees and just plain citizens are responding to the nearly 20,000 North Pole-bound letters that pour into Southern California post offices every year.

Scrawled in crayon or printed on word processors, letters to Santa range from simple yet difficult requests--”a job for Mommy”--to long lists of popular toys.

After they are routed to four central offices in the Los Angeles County and Orange County areas, anyone can sort through and answer them.

Among those with return addresses, letters from especially needy children are set aside for volunteers who want to send or deliver gifts. Most letters at least receive a written response.

For Deborah Welch of West Hills, answering a letter to Santa sounded like a much-needed break from a heavily commercialized season.

“Christmas was getting to be a drudgery,” she said, adding that she was sick of buying pairs of in-line skates for her three children. “Every year, I just spend hundreds of dollars on things that wind up in the bottom of the closet.”

This year, she chose a letter from a child asking for a robe and some games. Welch also grabbed a handful of letters to respond to.

“I wanted to get in touch with what Christmas is about,” she said.

Volunteers say they gain satisfaction from helping others directly and like the air of mystery posing as Santa’s helpers.

Vanessa Martin said that she prefers delivering gifts over writing a check to a charity.

“I want to get [the assistance] right to the person who wants it or needs it,” she said.

Last year, she personally brought toys to a poor Long Beach family.

“Santa Claus got your letter,” Martin told four young boys and their stunned parents. “He was so busy this year he wanted me to make sure these presents reached you.”

Martin said the expressions on the family’s faces--”bewildered in a happy way”--were rewarding.

She made the visit on her birthday, Dec. 23. “That was my birthday present to myself,” she said, adding that she plans to make it an annual tradition.

Every year, post offices collect about 500,000 letters to Santa nationwide, said Postal Service spokeswoman Terri Bouffiou.

“The addresses are so cute,” Bouffiou said after looking through letters collected in Orange County. Children assigned Santa ZIP Codes such as 00000 and 12345, and one decided he lived on Frost Bite Lane.

Some children draw pictures and send photos of themselves. One child enclosed two cookies in a plastic bag, said Stacia Crane, consumer affairs manager for the Van Nuys district.

Crane tries to find people who can respond to letters written in Spanish and other languages--one letter in Swedish came to the Santa Clarita processing center.

Postal worker Jim Brouillard said it is touching to read letters from children who asked for gifts for their parents or siblings instead of themselves. “They’re being unselfish,” he said.

As a way to get into the holiday spirit himself, Brouillard began helping a friend answer 100 letters to Santa.

Within the week, Brouillard had picked up 50 more to answer and decided to send presents to one family.

Volunteer Ellen Hamill, who has a son, said she selected a letter written by a boy who said he was a hard worker.

“I would want my own son to get this kind of unconditional response,” said Hamill, a Canyon Country resident.

In addition to giving that family a gift certificate for food and other presents, Hamill said she will write letters back to other children.

“We take so for granted how we live and the things we have,” Hamill said. “I think about the things I’ve wasted and how they would be so important to other people.”