December 4th is the day to start adopting letters with the USPS Operation Santa. Want to help make Christmas magical?

Thousands of letters to Santa arrive each year to the USPS. With Operation Santa, they invite people to adopt a child and respond to them. This program all started back in 1912 when Postmaster General Frank Hitchcock created Santa’s first mailroom.

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If you're looking to spread some Christmas cheer, you can pick one letter, or a household of letters. You can shop by yourself, or as a team with co-workers and friends.

Volunteers across the nation are now able to read and adopt letters online, and print out letters they select, together with encoded address labels. To protect children’s privacy, USPS ® staff redact family names and addresses from every letter"

Customers are encouraged to go online and adopt a letter to help a child or family have a happy holiday when they otherwise might not. In the past, you were also able to stop into a local Post Office, but because of COVID-19, there will be no in-person letter adoptions this year.

Letters received before Dec. 15 will be uploaded and made available for adoption, though the sooner your letter is received, the more likely it is to be answered. More details for writing letters to the USPS Operation Santa program can be found on the USPSOperationSanta.com website."

There is no date yet that gifts need to be sent by, but you can read more online here.

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