USPS spreads holiday cheer through the “Operation Santa” program

The United States Postal Service's (USPS) decades-old program "Operation Santa" will stop accepting gift requests on Monday for the 2022 holiday season.

Thousands of letters are sent through USPS to Santa Claus every year. Operation Santa started in 1912 and allowed local postmasters to open the letters sent to Santa and respond to them.

Since then the program has expanded to allow people across the United States to be able to adopt the letters and make some of these holiday wishes come true.

Anyone in the United States can write a letter to Santa. Not all of the letters are adopted.

The last day to submit a letter to Santa is on December 12.

The letter must be addressed to Santa and sent to 123 Elf Road, North Pole, 88888.

For those wishing to adopt a letter and send a gift, you can read some of the letters on the USPS website.

If you decide to adopt a letter, USPS recommends shipping the gift by December 19 so it arrives before Christmas.

At a USPS office in Twentynine Palms, the postmaster and several employees have gotten into the holiday spirit by dressing up as Mr. and Mrs. Claus and elves.

This is a tradition that was started by postmaster Lori Bugby five years ago. Bugby said she wanted to spread the holiday spirit and bring smiles to customers' faces.