LOS ANGELES, CA – There are seven days left to submit a letter and 14 days to adopt letters, in time for Christmas. Santa Claus and his postal elves are working closely on their plans to deliver a happy holiday to kids throughout southern California.

A key component of their plan is the U.S. Postal Service’s Operation Santa wish fulfillment program, kicked into high gear on Nov. 28 when benefactors began adopting Santa letters from the web site.

The USPS Operation Santa program encourages children to create and submit their Santa wish list letters for potential “adoption” by anonymous gift givers. Adopters fulfill letter writers’ Christmas wishes by purchasing and sending them gifts on behalf of Santa.

Due to the skyrocketing prices of toys, clothing and other goods, many southern California families may struggle to fulfill their children’s holiday wishes this year. That’s where USPS Operation Santa comes in.

Southern California residents are encouraged to go online to adopt letters submitted by children to USPS Operation Santa to help those children have a happy holiday. Letters can be filtered by state. Details on how to adopt a Santa letter and a history of the program are available at USPSOperationSanta.com

In 2021 more than 21,000 Santa letters submitted to the program were adopted nationwide, including 3,000 from California.

To participate in the program as a potential holiday gift recipient, all children and families need to do is write a letter to Santa, put it in an envelope with a First-Class Mail Forever stamp, include their complete return address, and send it to the USPS Operation Santa workshop address:

Santa Claus
123 Elf Road
North Pole 88888

Letters must be postmarked by Dec. 12, and will be uploaded to the USPS Operation Santa website through Dec. 19 for potential adoption

Here are some characteristics of a good letter to Santa:

• It’s legible
• It has a return address on both the letter and the envelope; make sure to include the full return address — apartment number, directional information (i.e., E Main St, Apt 103) and ZIP Code
• It has specific asks—including sizes, styles, colors, titles & names
• It is addressed correctly
• It has a postage stamp

When someone writes a letter, it is opened by Santa’s postal elves, and for safety reasons, all personally identifiable information of the letter writer is removed (i.e., last name, address, ZIP Code) and uploaded to USPSOperationSanta.com for adoption. There is no guarantee that letters submitted to the program will be adopted.

Since its beginning in 1912, the USPS Operation Santa program has helped to connect millions of children and their families with generous adopters. In recent years, the program transitioned from a hard-copy program hosted by certain Post Offices to a digital program that allows customers to access Santa letters at the USPS Operation Santa web site.

The Postal Service generally receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.

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The United States Postal Service is an independent federal establishment, mandated to be self-financing and to serve every American community through the affordable, reliable and secure delivery of mail and packages to more than 163 million addresses six and often seven days a week. Overseen by a bipartisan Board of Governors, the Postal Service is implementing a 10-year transformation plan, Delivering for America, to modernize the postal network, restore long-term financial sustainability, dramatically improve service across all mail and shipping categories, and maintain the organization as one of America’s most valued and trusted brands.

The Postal Service generally receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.

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