'Tis the Season to Unburden Yourself in Letters to Santa

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ROYAL OAK, MI - You could call Royal Oak mail carrier John Dick southeast Michigan’s lead elf.

He’s one of 20 or-so other U.S. Postal Service employees who are volunteering hours to answer the hundreds of letters addressed to the North Pole that end up at the Royal Oak Post Office from all over southeast Michigan.

Called the Royal Oak Elves Committee, Dick and the other volunteers meet at a secret location in the weeks before Christmas to sort through letters and decide how to best respond, The Daily Tribune reports.

The elves don’t make promises, not every request is for a gift, and even adults write letters.

An 8-year-old boy wrote last year asking only that his mom and dad be happy, Dick told the newspaper.

The boy’s mother wrote, too.

“The mom said she still believed in Santa but was having a hard year because she was going through a divorce,” Dick said. “She wasn’t sure she’d have enough money for the boy’s Christmas and was worried her son was struggling to keep believing in Santa.”

Dick and his elves got busy. Donors’ filled three large plastic bags with toys and an abundance of Christmas joy.

“We ended up surprising her on Christmas Eve,” he said. “She got very emotional. We had toys for her son and their dog and met her outside her house. That was pretty cool.”

Every year, there’s a similar letter that tugs at the elves’ hearts, said Dick, who has been answering letters to Santa for eight years.

People seem to unburden themselves to Santa, he said, and say things “they wouldn’t normally say because they know that no one is going to judge them.”

» Photo by Kate Ter Haar via Flickr / Creative Commons