Santas Address

Santas Address - Update

In this episode - Santas Address – Update . . .

Can you feel the holiday spirit in the air? It's all around us! You can see it in the numerous Christmas specials in our inboxes, the stores that have been twinkling with decorations since September, and the jolly old man, Santa, who's popping up in TV commercials everywhere. Speaking of Santa, don't forget to address this year's letter correctly as you prepare your wish list. But first, let's take a trip down memory lane and learn some fascinating history together.

Did you know children have been sending letters to Santa for longer than the United States Postal Service (USPS) has existed to deliver them? However, today, they’re far more likely to get a response if you include the correct address.

In early America, children’s holiday wish lists were often written out and left by the fireplace or burned in hearths, with the belief that the ashes would rise through the chimney and out to the holiday helper himself. Today, there’s no fireplace necessary — just a stamp — since the United States Postal Service gave Santa Claus his address: 123 Elf Road, North Pole, 88888.

After the creation of the Postal Service in 1775, letters to Santa flooded mailboxes; local postmasters would sometimes intercept the mail and respond to children themselves (though this is technically mail fraud, most postal workers considered the deed an act of kindness and looked the other way). Eventually, a specific postal route for thousands of Santa letters became a problem for real-life delivery workers. By 1907, the number of unanswered letters bogged down the Postal Service’s dead-letter office (the home for unclaimed or undeliverable mail), and many ended in incineration. So, the country’s postmaster allowed post offices to give Santa letters to generous individuals and charitable organizations, who then answered letters and delivered gifts.

Dubbed Operation Santa in 1912, the program has continued for over a century. It’s gotten a modern update, however: Wish lists from children and adults are anonymized and digitized, then uploaded to the USPS website, giving holiday do-gooders a chance to play Santa and reply with the kindness of a surprise gift.

Here's how it works – Click – Send a Letter to Santa.

Download one of the four PDF letter templates. (There’s a very cool Christmas tree letter).
Craft your letter to Santa.
Then, get an envelope from your parents – include your full Name, Return Address, and apartment number in the upper left corner.
Attach a First-Class™ stamp in the upper right corner.
Address your letter to the following:

Santa
123 Elf Road
North Pole, 88888

Drop it in your local mailbox by December 11th.

(P.S. Friends, neighbors, and generous folks) – Spread joy this holiday season by adopting a letter. Adopter registration is now open, and the letters are posted starting November 20th.

Don't miss out – Believe in Santa – make a child's holiday season extra special – and let the magic begin!

I’m Patrick Ball. Happy Holidays! See you in the next episode.

Comments

We Need Awe More Than Ever

In this episode, Why We Need Awe More Than Ever Yesterday morning, I slipped into the cool stillness of my backyard before dawn. The air was crisp, the silence deep—broken only by the faint rustling of leaves and the familiar calls of birds waking early. Then I looked up. A thin crescent moon hung low in the east, with Venus just above it like a shining jewel. The sky was clear and full of stars, and for a moment, I felt something I hadn’t in a long time: Awe! For thousands of years, the heavens have carried on their steady dance, untouched by human noise. No ruler, no election, no breaking news has ever changed their rhythm. And yet here I was, tempted to reach for my phone—to trade the eternal for the urgent. Instead, I stayed. I watched the moonrise, the sky slowly lighten, and the world around me stir. Ducks passed overhead in a loose V, hummingbirds zipped past to visit their feeder, pausing mid-air as if curious about me sitting so still. Little by little, the static in my mind f...

The Birth of a Cubs Legend

In this episode, The 162-Game Exhale — and the Birth of a Cubs Legend There’s a hush in the baseball world on Game 162 — a collective breath drawn in and slowly released. Scoreboards stop flipping. Dugouts empty. For six months, the game has been our steady heartbeat, pulsing from the cherry blossoms of Tokyo in March to the crisp, playoff-charged winds of late September. And now, as the regular season exhales, baseball fans everywhere pause to absorb the story we’ve just lived. For me, that story has been deeply personal. This season unfolded in the rhythms of my daily life. It was the summer soundtrack echoing beneath the constant turmoil of politics and sensational headlines. It was a handful of carefully chosen ballpark pilgrimages stitched together with countless nights in front of MLB.TV. And at the center of it all, for a lifelong Cubs fan like me, it revolved around one name — a young center fielder who turned hope into history: Pete Crow-Armstrong. The 2025 season didn’t begin...

The Silent Grid–Part Two

In this episode, The Silent Grid – Part Two Sirens split the night as Greenwood went dark. Marvin knew instantly—the blackout wasn’t an accident. It was a warning. In this quiet town, where life once unfolded at a predictable pace, a sleek, intuitive smartphone—a so-called gift from the future —has arrived. But it’s no tool for connection. It’s a silent force, erasing individuality and turning neighbors into something less than human. Marvin Gellborn, a man who values independence, sees the truth. His device isn’t helping; it’s testing him, watching him, and quietly embedding itself into the life of Greenwood. Welcome back to On the Fly . In this week’s episode of The Silent Grid , GridBot tightens its grip. After a hopeful community gathering, Marvin and his robot companion, Norman, notice a troubling absence—the very generation they hoped to reach has vanished into the neon glow of The Signal Box , a youth tech hub pulsing with digital obsession. When Greenwood’s lights vanish, Marvi...

The Pessimism Aversion Trap

In this episode, The Pessimism Aversion Trap Picture this: a room full of bright minds nodding in agreement as a bold new strategy is unveiled. The slides are polished, the vision is grand, and the future, we're told, has never looked brighter. Everyone beams—because who wants to be the one to say, "Um… this might not work"? Heaven forbid someone spoil the mood with a dose of reality. Better to smile, add a buzzword or two, and march confidently toward disaster. That's how the Pessimism Aversion Trap works. Even now, I can still hear the sound—a high-pitched shriek and a digital hum, followed by the slow, rhythmic clatter of data pouring from a 5¼-inch floppy disk. It was the late 1980s, and my makeshift home office (our living room) was dominated by what felt like a marvel of modern engineering: a used Tandy 1000 PC with not one, but two floppy drives. To top it off, we purchased a 'blisteringly fast' 300-baud modem—which, for the uninitiated, could downloa...

On The Fly

Search This Blog