Letters sent to a group that processes Santa’s mail show the travails in a pandemic year.

Pandemic adds pathos to ’20 correspondence

LIBOURNE, France — Jim, from Taiwan, slipped a face mask inside the greeting card he sent to Santa and marked “I (heart) u.” Alina, 5, asked in her Santa letter written with an adult’s help that he please use the front door when he drops in, because the back door is reserved for Grandma and Grandpa to minimize their risk of contamination.

And spilling out her heavy little heart to “Dear Father Christmas,” 10-year-old Lola wrote that she is wishing “that my aunt never has cancer again and that this virus no longer exists.”

“My mother is a care-giver and sometimes I am scared for her,” Lola explained, signing off her handwritten letter with, “Take care of yourself Father Christmas, and of the Elves.”

The emotional toll wrought by the pandemic is jumping off pages in the deluge of “Dear Santa” letters now pouring into a post office in southwestern France that sorts and responds to his mail from around the world.

Arriving by the tens of thousands, the letters, notes and cards are revealing windows into the tender minds of their young authors, and of adult Santa fans also asking for respite and happiness, at the tail end of a year of sickness and tumult.

In theory and often in practice, any letter addressed “Père Noël,” French for Father Christmas, and slipped into any mail box around the world is likely to wend its way to the sorting office in France’s Bordeaux region that has been handling his mail since 1962. Toiling out of sight among vineyards, his secretariat of workers, who call themselves “elves,” spends the months of November and December slicing open envelopes decorated with hearts, stickers and colors, and spreading Santa magic by responding on his behalf.

From the first letters opened at the secretariat starting Nov. 12, it quickly became apparent how the pandemic is weighing on children, said the chief elf, Jamila Hajji. Along with the usual pleas for toys and gadgets were also requests for vaccines, for visits from grandparents, for life to return to the way it was. One letter in three mentions the pandemic in some way, Hajji said.

Replying to 12,000 letters per day, the team of 60 elves sets aside some that move them or catch their eye. Lola’s is among those that have stood out so far, with its heartfelt confession to Santa that “this year more than the others, I need magic and to believe in you.” The elves say their sense is that children are confiding worries that they may not have shared with parents.

Emma Barron, a psychiatrist specializing in the mental health of children and adolescents at the Robert Debré pediatric hospital in Paris, said landmark dates, including birthdays and holidays like Christmas, provide structure in childhood. Amid the pandemic’s uncertainty, the Dec. 25 anchor of Christmas is particularly important to kids this year.

Francois Mori The Associated Press A postal worker dressed as Santa talks with co-workers as they open envelopes addressed to Père Noël, Father Christmas in French, in Libourne, France on Monday. The letters offer a glimpse into the worries and hopes of children during the pandemic.