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 * How To Volunteer
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   * FAQs
 * Seeking Gifts?
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   * Who We Are
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 * Press Releases
 * Real Santa Letters

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BEST GUIDE TO USPS OPERATION SANTA®


HELP ANSWER SAD LETTERS TO SANTA WRITTEN BY CHILDREN WHO NEED A BRIGHTER
CHRISTMAS

You can adopt real letters to Santa written by underprivileged kids and send
your gifts directly to the children who wrote to him. There’s no middle man or
charity; it’s micro-philanthropy, direct from you to a child when you give in
this way.

Every December since 1912, the USPS Operation Santa ® has permitted the public
to read and adopt children’s letters to Santa. Many are written by kids and Moms
who ask only for “a warm coat for my 5 year old,” “new shoes, size 6,” or other
basic necessities. Volunteers at Christmas may mail their gifts directly to
children who need a brighter Christmas.

Letters from kids and some struggling parents will be available for adoption
starting November 20th, 2023 at  USPSoperationSanta.com®. Postal elves select
letters for the site, and they are pouring  in daily.

Be An Elf is a tax-exempt charity not affiliated with USPS® Operation Santa®,
but we support it by creating public awareness of the program at this website
and in social media. Every year we recruit many new volunteers who adopt
letters, and we also offer tips to needy families writing to Santa.

If you don’t have time to adopt a letter and send gifts, Be An Elf will do it
for you. We use a portion of our tax-deductible donations to adopt letters and
send gifts to the families who wrote them.

Be An Elf’s Seeking Gifts? page offers a simple explanation of the program to
kids who find the website, and assures them that Postal elves put every child’s
letter back in the mail to Santa the same day, and that he will deliver his
gifts on Christmas eve, too. The page also offers smart tips for parents who are
struggling financially and seeking help with Christmas this year.

This year Be An Elf added a new team-building guide for company employees and
management on our new Company Christmas Charity page.

Some volunteers feel alone and sad over the holidays, and find comfort and
inspiration adopting a child’s letter. Others have families and include their
kids to teach them the meaning of Christmas.

Anyone can print out a letter they adopt from the USPS Operation Santa ®
website, together with a barcoded shipping label. To protect children’s privacy,
of course USPS® staff redact family names and addresses from letters before
posting them online.

Volunteers who adopt letters can mail their gifts at any of 19,000 US postal
branches that offer “label scanning”. A barcoded shipping label prints out with
every letter adopted. See our How to mail gifts page to find a branch near you. 

Packages with gifts should be mailed by December 17th to get there in time for
Christmas, but post offices will accept packages for mailing up until
mid-January.

Be An Elf adopts letters only through the USPS® website, and the number of
letters we are able to adopt increases as we receive tax-deductible donations
from the public. 

We do not adopt emails sent to us using the contact form at this site, but if
you contact us anyway, before you click on submit, copy your message, print it
out, and then mail the print to Santa at his special address on our Seeking
Gifts? page. Stamps are required, or the USPS® will return your letter
undelivered. 

Every year, we get hundreds of moving emails, many asking for new shoes for
kids, clothes, and other basic needs. Again, we urge you to mail your letter to
Santa at his special address on our Seeking Gifts? page. 

As donations permit, we do adopt letters from the USPS® website, and mail the
Mom a Target gift card. Our donors get a tax deduction, and we have faith that
the Moms know best what their kids want or need most. We enclose the gift card
in a Christmas card with a note saying simply, “This is for your kids. Love,
Santa.”

Tax-deductible donations may be made to Be An Elf using our Donate page. Your
contribution to Be An Elf will help us send more gifts to low-income families in
time for Christmas. 

Whether you donate or adopt a letter and send gifts, you will bring joy to more
kids on Christmas morning.  You’ll catch the true spirit of the holidays and
help put smiles on the faces of needy kids on Christmas morning.

Thanks for being an Elf! Please share this website on your social media, and
share one of our sample tweets and posts.


A SHORT HISTORY OF THE RECENT TRANSITION FROM THE TRADITIONAL WALK-IN PROGRAM TO
ONLINE

From 1912 to 2019 the USPS® welcomed walk-in volunteers to read and adopt
letters in person at select branches alongside other volunteers.

In the year of Covid, 2020, the Postal Service® took the program online and
expanded access to all Americans nationwide.  The same year the Postal Service®
canceled the traditional walk-in program at the last two branches that still
offered it, New York City and Chicago.  

Our news releases in our Press Room ask editors to cover the USPS Operation
Santa® story, and mention Be An Elf as a resource for Christmas volunteers and
for those Seeking Gifts. 

When the below MSNBC news interview was filmed in 2011, Christmas volunteers
could still walk in and adopt letters at select postal branches. Operation Santa
is now fully online, and while it’s no longer possible to read letters in
person, this report captures the emotions so many volunteers experience.



If you are struggling financially and unable to buy enough Christmas gifts for
your kids this year, volunteers may be able to help out. We urge you to read our
Seeking gifts? for the address for mailing your letter to Santa, and tips that
will help your letter stand out from others.

If you’re a volunteer with kids of your own, explain to your kids you want to
send extra gifts to a child whose parents can’t buy their kids much this year.
Reassure them that of course, Santa will still get the child’s letter and he
will send them his gifts, too.

Be An Elf is a tax-exempt charity. While not affiliated with USPS® Operation
Santa ®, Be An Elf supports it by recruiting thousands of new volunteers for it
through a major grant from Google of $10,000 per month in free advertising. The
grant was first awarded in 2007, and is ongoing.

We also provide an excellent guide for volunteers on our How to Volunteer page
and create public awareness of the program through our news releases. Not least,
our site offers excellent tips for parents from low-income families on
our Seeking Gifts? page. Thousands of volunteers and families seeking help with
Christmas have signed up at our website on two separate lists, and we remind
them to when it’s time to volunteer or time write to Santa. 

Be An Elf’s mission is to make more underprivileged children smile on Christmas
morning and to inspire people with the real spirit of Christmas. Together we can
bring joy to more children at Christmas.

Please make a tax-deductible gift and Donate Now to Be An Elf! 



Read More Letters to Santa

Help us bring smiles to needy kids on Christmas morning.


Donate Now


Only volunteers sending gifts should contact us. Santa will not see your message
here! If you’re seeking gifts, contact Santa’s Christmas volunteers through
our seeking gifts page. If you want to give gifts, click below.

Contact


JOIN OUR VOLUNTEER ELVES

Get info about how you can send gifts directly to a needy child, and a reminder
about this program next Christmas. If you’re seeking gifts, we’ll tell you where
to write Santa. Please check only one box below.

After signing up, you will receive occasional emails during the Christmas
season. We will never share your information with third parties, and you can
unsubscribe at any time using the link at the bottom of the few messages we
send. Thank you for being an Elf!

Be An Elf is a tax-exempt 501c3 children’s Christmas charity. Contributions are
tax-deductible. We are not affiliated with USPS Operation Santa® but we support
it by creating public awareness of the program online and in social media, by
recruiting and orienting new volunteers to the program, and by offering tips to
needy families writing to Santa. Be An Elf also uses donations to adopt letters
to Santa and send gifts to the kids who wrote them. We will never share your
info with third parties; see Be An Elf’s privacy policy.

© 2024 Be An Elf – All rights reserved.


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