Saving Santa

Unlike the dates of JFK's assassination and the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Dec. 9, 1906 does not remain etched in the nation's consciousness.

But the events of that day were as troubling and traumatic as any great American tragedy.

For Santa Claus, the beloved patron saint of Christmas, met an untimely end that frosty morning, killed by bureaucrats at the United States Postal Service.

"The Post Office Department does not believe in Santa Claus. Officially, the dispenser of Christmas cheer for little folks is a myth," the New York Times reported on Dec. 10, 1906.

Though it began receiving Santa letters over a century ago, the U.S. Postal Service did not make a formal ruling on the fate of the letters until 1906. 

In a landmark decision, the Postal Service officially declared Santa Claus non-existent and set forth the proper manner of Santa letter disposal.

All letters addressed to the jolly chimney-diver were to be forwarded to the Dead Letter Office, the final resting place for all letters with incomplete or fictitious addresses.

Noting that under the ruling, philanthropic citizens would no longer be allowed to respond to children's Santa letters, the New York Times chastised the Postal Service for its failure of imagination.

"How could letters addressed to a person and place that don't exist be delivered to real persons with real abiding places? There is no imagination in the Post Office Department that can cover that stretch.

"It would be 'against the law' to deliver letters to other than the addressee, and the time-honored Christmas celebration might better be abandoned than have the law violated in such fashion."

Brooklyn Postmaster Goes Rogue

Santa may have been dead in the eyes of the U.S. Postal Service, but Brooklyn was still cozy with the big man in 1906.

Two weeks after the Postal Service's announcement, Brooklyn postmaster George H. Roberts denied that he'd received orders to forward Santa letters to the Dead Letter Office.

As Christmas approached, he assured children that their letters would be delivered to the right hands.

"Old Santa Claus is not dead, so far as the Brooklyn Post Office is concerned," Roberts told the New York Times on Dec. 23, 1906.

"Why, every boy and girl in Brooklyn knows that the good old fellow is very much alive and that he will live forever, because of his devotion to little children. The idea of anybody presuming to declare him dead!"

In keeping with a Brooklyn tradition, Roberts said he would send the letters to Santa Claus through his special helpers.

Local philanthropists, acting on Santa's behalf, would answer each letter and provide presents for poor children.

 "Old Kris Kringle is neither a myth nor officially dead, if the Brooklyn Post Office knows anything about him," said Roberts.

Bloodless and Childless

When word of Roberts' bold stance appeared in the New York Times, Postal Service officials responded with a harsh rebuke.

"The bloodless and childless Post Office Department doesn't know anything about that jolly old friend of the children, and it isn't at all in sympathy with the action of Postmaster Roberts of Brooklyn in learning the way to deliver letters addressed to him," the Times reported on Dec. 24, 1906.

Roberts' decision to deliver Santa letters to area civic organizations drew the ire of Assistant Postmaster General Frank H. Hitchcock, who said Roberts' actions set a dangerous precedent.

"If letters to Santa Claus were to be opened instead of being sent to the Dead Letter Office, why might not others also be opened?" Hitchcock reasoned. "It seems too bad, doubtless, but to give these letters out would demoralize the Postal Service."

To make its earlier ruling even more explicit, Postal Service officials set forth a special fiat "that no such person as Santa Claus, under whatever alias he may be addressed, has corporal existence, and that therefore his official address is the Dead Letter Office," the Times reported.

The newspaper's sympathy clearly rested with Roberts.

The Times called the official responsible for the ruling a "skeptical bachelor, who has forgotten his own boyhood visits from Kris Kringle."

Change of Heart

Six years after taking a stand against the rogue Brooklyn postmaster, Hitchcock, now Postmaster General, had a change of heart.

In December of 1912, Hitchcock issued an order that letters addressed to Santa Claus arriving at post offices between Dec. 16 and Jan. 1 be turned over to responsible persons or institutions in the town or city of address.

Postmasters were instructed to distribute letters at their discretion in the event that more than one philanthropic institution requested the letters.

Hitchcock also eased up on another previous ruling. During the holiday season, he lifted regulations prohibiting the placing of a stamp on the same side of the letter as the address.

But after Jan. 1, Hitchcock instructed his postmasters to show no mercy.

Letters with stamps and addressed on the same face would be returned to the sender or forwarded to the dreaded Dead Letter Office.

Operation Santa Claus

In the early 1920s, New York Postal workers began playing Santa Claus.

They answered all letters addressed to Santa and dug into their own pockets to purchase food and toys for needy children.

When Santa letters began arriving by the thousands, the Postal workers asked the public for help in what became the U.S. Postal Service's Operation Santa Claus.

The annual program, sponsored by the New York Post Office, makes Santa letters available to charitable citizens and civic organizations.

Letters from across the country find their way to the New York Post Office's "Operation Santa" section, where they are opened by postal employees, sorted by geographic location and distributed to those meeting program requirements.

Postal workers in other cities have established local versions of Operation Santa Claus, modeled after New York's successful program.

Though Gulf County does not have its own Operation Santa Claus, local children need not be discouraged.

For decades, The Star has printed Santa letters in its Christmas edition.

Santa is an avid Star reader, and looks forward to hearing from the children of Gulf County each year.

Star Santa Letters

The Star will feature Santa letters from area school children in its Christmas edition.

All letters must be delivered to the Star office by noon on Wednesday, Dec. 17.

The Star is located at 135 W. Hwy. 98, Port City Shopping Center in Port St. Joe.

For more information, call 850-227-1278.