Chicagoans can answer letters to Santa
Postal Service program includes North Pole address
Brendan Murphy’s second child was 6 months old when the Chicago real estate agent heard a radio DJ talking about how volunteers could fulfill wishes in real-life letters to Santa received by the U.S. Postal Service. Hewanted in.
“Just the thought of there being kids out there who weren’t going to be getting anything for Christmas really bothered me,” Murphy said.
Murphy headed to the post office on Harrison Street and began picking out letters. Eight years later, he and the team of volunteers he assembled at his workplace, Dream Town Realty, have sent gifts to over 600 children, some requesting no more than a coat or a teddy bear.
Murphy’s work is featured in a new documentary, “Dear Santa,” about the USPS Operation Santa program. Operation Santa is open to the general public, with the Postal Service inviting children to write to Santa at Santa Claus, 123 Elf Road, North Pole, 88888.
In past years, Chicagoans could do in-person letter adoption at the Harrison Street Post Office, but due to COVID-19, letter adoptions have moved entirely online to USPSOperationSanta.com.
Volunteers buy the gifts kids want and mail them through the Postal Service. The deadline for sending presents at a participating post office is Dec. 19.
The kids requesting gifts remain anonymous, so Murphy saw children opening Operation Santa gifts only when he watched the trailer for the “Dear Santa” documentary.
Murphy, who has three kids, ages 5, 8 and 11, keeps spreadsheets listing the letter writers who request gifts and the co-workers who buy them. Some kids are looking for iPads and computers, he said, but he’s drawn to the simpler requests, and the ones focusing on the needs of parents and siblings.
“You can see by what a lot of these kids are asking for that this is going to be the difference on whether they have something to open on Christmas or not,” he said.