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 struggling parents are posted online every year starting in mid-November at USPSoperationSanta.com®. Postal elves select letters for the site and post new ones daily as they keep pouring in.
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 new volunteers who adopt letters, and brief them on our How to be an Elf page.
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 tips to families who are struggling financially this year. Since children also find this page, we offer a simple explanation of the program and assure them that Postal elves put every child’s letter “right 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 hoping to find help with Christmas this year.
Be An Elf also offers a team-building guide for company employees 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.
Those who sign up for our mailing list below get a reminder about the program every Christmas season, and can unsubscribe at any time.
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.
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!
Help us bring smiles to needy kids on Christmas morning.
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.
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.
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.
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