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'Santa, can I have money for the bills?' US kids' Christmas letters take heartbreaking turn

<span>Photograph: stocknroll/Getty Images</span>
Photograph: stocknroll/Getty Images

For more than a century, postal workers have taken on a special responsibility around Christmas: figuring out what to do with the letters children believe they are sending to Santa.

In 1912, the US postmaster general first authorized workers to respond to these letters, and the original Operation Santa was born. Now managed by the United States Postal Service, the initiative opened to the public in 1940, but this is the first year it has been online and nationwide. Anyone in the US can read letters from children, and “adopt” their gift lists by committing to sending them Christmas presents – “from Santa”, of course.

But not all kids are just writing in asking for special toys and treats. A striking number also write to Santa asking for essentials like food, healthcare or even housing for their families. “Dear Santa,” reads one letter. “My name is Yadhira, I am 11 years old. The things I wish for is money for the bills.”

“There’s been so many that have asked, ‘Can you please make Mommy not sick any more? She’s not supposed to be sick. She’s supposed to be strong so she can take care of me,’” says Kimberly Frum, a senior PR representative for the USPS. And it’s not just kids writing to Operation Santa – parents also reach out to ask for help buying books and toys. Film-maker Dana Nachman, whose documentary about the project, Dear Santa, is out this month, told the Associated Press that she “could have done an entire film on people who just wanted food or mattresses”.

Poignancy gives way to horror at a situation that necessitates children asking Santa for simple needs, many of which could be met if the world’s largest economy had a stronger social safety net. As it is, Operation Santa feels a bit like a kid’s version of GoFundMe – the crowdsourcing platform many Americans use to help pay for even basic medical procedures covered by universal healthcare in places like Canada, the UK and Australia.

As of 2018, one in six children in America – 11.9 million – live in poverty. Addressing this crisis requires anti-poverty legislation, such as 2020’s Child Poverty Reduction Act, introduced to Congress in June. Increased investments into housing security and benefit programs, better tax benefits, increased wages for working families and wage subsidies, and affordable healthcare would represent a start in the right direction, according to the non-profit Children’s Defense Fund.

But most citizens don’t feel like they can personally affect the systemic causes of child poverty – at least, not between right now and Christmas. Operation Santa allows people to make a direct, tangible impact on the lives of those in need. In addition to facilitating the sending of gifts, the USPS is also offering to connect families with “special requests”, such as the need for a job opportunity, housing, or a medical procedure, with those who have the ability to help them.

“It’s amazing, the amount of need,” says Frum. “But what’s really more amazing are the people that actually step up and help adopt these letters and bring some joy to people’s lives for the holidays.”

That doesn’t necessarily make the children’s requests any easier for others to swallow, though. As one anthropology student reading through this year’s letters tweeted: “Don’t read these if you don’t want to cry right where you’re sitting.”