Couple Writes Giant Letter to Santa With Uplifting Anti-Violence Message

CHICAGO, IL - On Christmas Eve, countless families will set aside the standard thank you gift for Santa, cookies and milk. But one Chicago couple is leaving a giant letter for Saint Nick in their front yard. Its message -- peace.

Edgewater residents Caro D’Offay and Laura Gilmore started writing Santa in 2012 as a way to cope with grief following the mass shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, reported CBS Chicago.

“Pretty depressed about Sandy Hook shooting; we thought it was difficult to celebrate Christmas with the regular Christmas message, so we thought we’d make something that spoke to violence in an uplifting way. I mean, as uplifting as you can be in a situation like that,” D’Offay told the station.

So what did they write? A fiction correspondence between Santa and a boy named Bobby who had a troubled friend.

In 2012, Santa wrote Bobby to say his friend had made the naughty list for losing faith in himself, reported DNAinfo. Next year’s installation was a reply from Bobby about the trouble his friend was having opening up to others. Santa’s next letter offered a valuable lesson: people bully others because they feel bad themselves.

This year, Bobby wrote Santa about a book he received. Its protagonist, Captain Compassion, “turns mad feelings into super powers out of his chest to help other people,” reads the letter.

The main message? When others are angry, they’re probably sad.

D’Offay and Gilmore told DNAinfo that dozens of people have come to their yard every day to read the message, often responding emotionally. Although the installation features Santa and is created before Christmas, the couple said the message is about kindness and compassion.

“We’re trying to create a universal theme of compassion. It’s not religious; it’s not political,” D’Offay told CBS Chicago.

[Photo courtesy of Kevin Dooley]