Santa’s Mailbox

Here are the ways you can give:

Make a secure credit card donation online: www.globesanta.org.

By phone: 617-929-2007 Send check or money order made payable to Globe Santa to

The Boston Globe Foundation c/o Globe Santa Fund PO Box 491 Medford, MA 02155-0005

Shortly after my son was born my husband lost his job. I couldn’t work due to illness. We were forced to move and that took all the last of our savings. The little money we do have access to we use to contribute to wherever we spend our nights as well as travel funds to and from job interviews, diapers, and medicine and clothes.

Many of these families are struggling mightily to get their lives back on track, even if it means asking for help, which they say does not come easily to them.

“I want to show my daughter that no matter how difficult things may seem, we can overcome them!,” writes the mother of a 5-year-old. “I want her to always remember that she is seen and heard.”

The subject of homelessness often leaves Americans despairing, angry, even cynical. Homeless people register in the public imagination as a where-do-weput-them or a why-did-they-come-here kind of problem. They’re described with cold euphemisms: housing-insecure, unhoused, displaced, unsheltered.

Globe Santa hears the heartbeats in the letters that pour in from families who are not only without shelter but in many cases without hope. At this time of year, their plight is exacerbated by the hype and hoopla of the holidays.

Yet Globe Santa’s gifts will always find their way to them, whether they’re in shelters, hotels and motels — wherever they’ve been placed by the state — or those doubling up with relatives or friends. As one homeless mother wrote: “Joy is a gift that EVERY child deserves.”

Do you have a Globe Santa story to share? Did Globe Santa help you or your family? We would love to hear from you. Please contact Linda Matchan at linda.matchan@globe.com.