In just a few minutes, I would walk across the threshold, shake hands, kiss cheeks, and sit down with the rest of my aunt’s family at a table that filled the entire living room. My aunt’s family and I would marvel at the pasta that took my aunt’s aunt three days to make. I’d say “No” to all seven fish courses again—I’m still vegetarian.
After dinner, Cosmo Senior would give a guided tour of the upstairs floor. He’d show us the bedroom Cosmo Jr. slept in when he isn’t staying with his girlfriend of the last fifteen years, who’s now his wife—although, like I said, none of us know that yet. He’d point out his bedroom across the hall from his wife’s, and say, “We haven’t shared a bedroom since 1973. ‘S’wonderful!”
But right then, as I stood there looking in through the window, the X in the road behind me, a life’s worth of unreal Christmases behind me, too, I swore I could see them passing around this enormous plate of warm spinach. I thought about my three kids opening their presents and I began to mist.
And Arty Bike Girl said, You know, I’m kind of hungry. And my inner Undercover Mother said, Then let’s open the door and walk in. So I opened the door and walked in to my first Real Christmas, which was everything I had hoped for, and more.
As it turned out, I was right about one fact of Christmas, after all: The longer something takes to get ready for, the more life-altering it can be.
How to Be an Undercover Santa
The following pages contain a brief history of the post office’s Operation Santa Claus program. They’ll also tell you how you can become an Undercover Santa in real life. I’ve included tips on how to obtain multiple letters if you’d like to adopt a classroom of Operation Santa Claus kids, or hold an Undercover Santa party.
An Undercover Santa party is a gathering of friends, family members, and/or colleagues who gather at a host’s home or office to read through and select Operation Santa Claus letters to answer while enjoying holiday foods and music.
Being an Undercover Santa opens up a whole new set of holiday choices. Some people choose to answer Operation Santa Claus letters on behalf of a loved one in place of giving a more traditional gift; others answer letters in addition to their regular holiday gift giving. Some deliver their gifts in person, while others remain anonymous. The good news is, no matter how you do it, being an Undercover Santa is a simple yet powerful way to celebrate the season’s spirit of generosity. Did I mention that it feels really good, too?
About Operation Santa Claus
Operation Santa Claus was founded over seventy years ago, when workers in what was known as the Money Order Department of the United States Postal Service’s main Manhattan post office started answering letters addressed to Santa. Over the years, Operation Santa Claus has become one of the largest Christmas volunteer efforts in the world. Letters are received from disadvantaged kids and families throughout the United States, and occasionally from overseas.
In 2001, Operation Santa Claus received over 400,000 letters. Approximately one-third to one-half were answered.
Thanks to the generosity of the individuals who answer Operation Santa Claus letters, miraculous things have occurred: Families have been reunited, lifesaving operations have been funded, and a pure belief in Santa has been restored to children who might otherwise have no Christmas. Still, the number of letters continues to exceed the number of givers by almost two to one.
Many post offices around the country have Operation Santa Claus programs of their own. Each program operates independently. To find out if a program exists in your area, you’ll need to contact your local post office.
If your post office doesn’t have an Operation Santa Claus program, don’t panic! You can call Operation Santa Claus headquarters in New York City to have letters sent to you by mail. Since the New York Operation Santa Claus program is the final destination for letters from around the country, you may be able to answer a letter from your area! To receive a letter by mail, call 212-967-8585.
Operators at the main Manhattan post office can also answer questions about Operation Santa Claus and help larger groups and/or interested companies connect with schools that have kids in need. For questions, or to arrange for your organization to answer letters in bulk, call the number listed above.
About Letters
If your local post office has an Operation Santa Claus program, go there and pick letters for your guests in person. Give yourself a couple of hours if you plan to select the letters one by one, tzedaka Santa-style. If you’re hosting an Undercover Santa holiday party, a good ratio of letters to guests is 2:1. Many people will take home more than one letter for themselves, family members, friends, and colleagues. Return any unanswered letters to Operation Santa Claus immediately so that other interested adults can answer them in time!
An important note: As you read through the letters kids write to Operation Santa Claus, you will notice that some children simply ask for one small gift for a sibling who might otherwise lose faith in Santa, while others request expensive items—or lists of expensive items!—such as video games and computers, or high-fashion clothing and sneakers.
While you may feel overwhelmed by or even resentful of letters from kids in need who ask for these kinds of top-dollar gifts, please don’t automatically put these letters back, assuming that a child’s request is “all for nothing.” Children from families that struggle to put food on the table share the same outlandish wish lists as kids whose families want for nothing. They watch the same television commercials and music videos. They have the same designer label-bedecked heroes and dream of looking exactly like the celebrities in fashion magazines and movies as other kids their age.
As one Operation Santa Claus veteran explains so well, “Kids in need often ask for things that we parents may not be able to afford for our own kids. But the truth is, what they desperately need is a warm coat, and they’d deeply appreciate a book or a small toy. It’s up to us adults to read between the lines. After all, they’re just kids!”
Undercover Santa Parties
Some Undercover Santa party hosts invite their guests to share holiday stories before reading through Operation Santa Claus letters. Others prefer to give a brief introduction about Operation Santa Claus’s history and purpose.
The most important thing is to make letters accessible to guests, either on one centrally located large table or on smaller surfaces throughout the room. Some guests may feel overwhelmed by the number of kids who need their help. I remind these guests that they can read as many letters as they like and answer one only if it “sings” to them. There’s “no obligation to buy.”
It is crucial that an Operation Santa Claus form be filled out for every letter that is taken home, as Operation Santa Claus keeps track of kids whose letters have been answered. That way, duplicate letters from one kid don’t prevent another’s letter from being answered. The Operation Santa Claus forms also allow the post office to assist frantic Undercover Santas who have misplaced their kids’ addresses—a very commonplace event during the holiday season!
All completed forms should be returned to the post office by the quickest means possible, which usually means in person, the same day as your party, or the morning after. If you need to mail your forms, the correct address is:
Operation Santa Claus
c/o James A. Farley Building
Main Manhattan Post Office
421 Eighth Avenue
New York, NY 10199-9998
“Completed Operation Santa Claus Form Inside!”
Questions and Answers
Guests may have additional questions about the letters they’re reading, or how to answer them. Answers to frequently asked questions can be found at www.love-santa.com. You can also send questions by E-mail to: [email protected].
Please remember: Undercover giving, like love itself, is an imperfect yet wondrous exercise. All is possible, and even probable. Happy Holidays to all Undercover Santas. And to all a good night.
Sharon Glassman is a
writer and
performer who creates heart-defrosting
stories for a high-tech age. For informa-
tion on Sharon’s traveling “Love, Santa”
project, or to add your story of holiday
giving to her Web site, please visit:
www.love-santa.com. Sharon Glassman
lives in New York City.
A holiday story that will restore your faith in
Christmas Present, Christmas presents, and the
miraculous power of giving…
After years of trying to give herself a perfect Christmas, Sharon Glassman found herself obsessing one December over whether children she would never meet would have presents under their tree. She had discovered the Post Office’s “Operation Santa Claus” in New York City. With letters to St. Nick from three kids in need, Sharon headed straight for the mall and—between cranky parents, deceptive gifts, and incredibly long lines at the cash register—discovered why Christmas is still magical even in this day and age.
“Offers heartwarmers for cynics and instructions for
making the ‘holiday spirit’ more reality than rhetoric…
a recipe for redemption.”
—SUSAN JANE GILMAN, AUTHOR OFKISS MY TIARA
“Hysterically written with a snap, crackle, and pop-crazy
vernacular… .LOVE, SANTA is enough to warm the spirits of the
most cynical and disillusioned two-dimensional character.”
—TRACY GRANDSTAFF, VOICE OF MTV’S “DARIA”
“From the commercial chaos that is the modern holiday season,
Sharon Glassman distills the true spirit of generosity. With a
poet’s eye for details and a lover’s embrace of human foibles, the
talented monologuist proves the truth is out there…
somewhere between Brooklyn and the North Pole.”
—FRANK DE CARO, AUTHOR OFA BOY NAMED PHYLLIS: A SUBURBAN MEMOIR
* We broke up a few months later when I realized he did love real estate more than people, after all. All I can say is: Kumbaya. You were expecting maybe a fairy tale?
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