Santa's Secret Post Office Helper

Lovettsville Postal Worker Has Personally Responded to Santa Letters for 2 Decades

By Cara McCoy

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus — and she works behind the window at the Lovettsville post office.

Ann Hardy might not look like a traditional Santa Claus in her blue, postal service-issued blouse and necktie. But every year at Christmas for the past 21 years, she has been stepping into Santa's big black boots and responding to his mail.

Letters from Lovettsville mailboxes addressed to "Santa," "Santa Claus" or simply "North Pole" find their way into Hardy's hands. Hardy, a clerk at the Lovettsville post office for 34 years, responds to all of them. She signs each reply "Santa."

She has been corresponding with Lovettsville's children since 1986, when the postal clerk who previously wrote the Santa letters retired.

"She retired and I just sort of inherited it," said Hardy, 65, as she shuffled through a trove of Santa letters from past years. "I'm sure I've gotten more out of it than [the kids] because it's just fun to do."

Photo Gallery

Letters to Santa

Photo: 0/1

« Previous | Next »

Larger Version

Ann Hardy, who has been a clerk at the Lovettsville post office for 34 years, looks through some old letters addressed to Santa. (Cara McCoy)

Larger Version

This letter writer, whose name has been blurred at the request of the U.S. Postal Service, promised Santa she would leave him cookies and milk. (Cara McCoy)

Larger Version

This letter, which Ann Hardy responded to in a previous year, requested a robot and some gum. Hardy has been responding to letters addressed to Santa Claus since 1986. (Cara McCoy)

Larger Version

Ann Hardy shows some of the hundreds of letters addressed to Santa she has responded to over the years. (Cara McCoy)

Larger Version

This letter, with the name blurred at the request of the U.S. Postal Service, asked Santa for a light saber. (Cara McCoy)

Larger Version

Ann Hardy always stamps the letters with her special postmark before she sends them back. (Cara McCoy)

Larger Version

In this photocopy of an old letter, the author says "All I want for Christmas is peace." (Cara McCoy)

Larger Version

This piece of paper has pictures cut out from a catalog of every item the child wants. It was included with his letter to Santa. "The letters that are just 'want,' 'want,' 'want,' aren't as fun," Ann Hardy said. (Cara McCoy)

View all thumbnails

She picked up one of the many letters. This one, signed "Army guy and fire chief," requested a garbage truck for Christmas.

"You'd think he'd have asked for a fire truck," Hardy said.

Outside of Lovettsville, letters to Santa sent from Loudoun mailboxes wind up at the Merrifield sorting station in Fairfax County, where clerks in the U.S. Postal Service's consumer affairs office respond with one of several form letters.

This year, the larger post offices in Loudoun, such as Ashburn and Leesburg, had each received about 50 letters to Santa by the middle of December. Lovettsville, with an estimated population of 1,204 in 2006 (up from 749 in 1990, according to the U.S. Census Bureau) had received 33 such letters by Dec. 20, according to Lovettsville Postmaster Kenna Karnish.

On her own time — either off the clock in the cluttered mail processing room or at her home — Hardy for two decades wrote out each reply by hand.

This year marked the first time she did not respond with pen and paper. The U.S. Postal Service e-mailed form letters to all post office branches, including Lovettsville.

That didn't faze Hardy. Working on a computer, she rewrote each letter — changing the generic "Dear Friend" to the child's name and adding language that related to what each child had written.

Then she printed the letters on holiday paper before mailing them out.

"We could send our letters to Merrifield, and we might [eventually] have to do that," Karnish said. "But we've got the form letters now that we personalize, so it makes it easy."

Children who write to Santa usually ask for one or two items. Sometimes the letters are just notes to say "hello," or questions about which list — "naughty or nice" — their name appears on. Many letters include drawings and affirmations of belief in Mr. and Mrs. Claus.

"Dear Santa," one girl, who swore she had been "good," wrote last year. "I will leave cookies and milk for you, your reindeer will get water and carrots outside (in the front and on the bench)." She went on to promise, "I'll never stop believing in you ever or your reindeer."

Another girl wrote, "I really don't care what I get for Christmas. All I want is peace. Why do people not believe in you?"

Many of Hardy's carefully crafted responses sound like they came from Kris Kringle himself.

One year, a child wrote to Santa asking why an evergreen tree is part of the Christmas celebration.

"Why do we have a Christmas tree? I mean, who knows," Hardy said.

She trekked to the Lovettsville public library to do some research and included in her response an anecdote about how "an angel put a cluster of stars on the branches of the evergreen — an act that pleased the baby Jesus who smiled and said forevermore the fur tree would have lights to please little children."

The same little boy who asked about evergreen trees has peppered Santa for several years with questions about everything from elves to Frosty the Snowman.

"Last year, he wanted to know about elves' ears and whether they're pointed or not," Hardy said. "So I wrote him back and told him some are and some aren't. Just like people, some are tall, some are short — and we're all special."

Hardy personally knows many of the children she writes to. Some appreciative parents have stopped by the post office to thank the staff, or have thanked their letter carriers, Hardy said. One mother even stops by to ask for the letters so she can include them in a scrapbook for her children when they're grown.

Last year, a grateful parent responded to a Santa letter with a handwritten thank-you note addressed to the post office staff. The mother wrote that she put the letters her children had written to Santa in the mailbox, not expecting a response. She said she was surprised when her children received letters back from Santa, adding that reading the responses on Christmas Eve made for a "magical" holiday.

"That's part of the fun, is that they don't really expect a response," Hardy said.

"I always use my special postmark," she added, pointing to a white envelope stamped with a reindeer.

Lovettsville is expanding so rapidly that it's hard to keep up, Karnish said. The post office is set to move to a new, larger facility next year, which should help ease the cramped conditions at its current location.

Hardy is contemplating retirement next year. As long as the town's population doesn't grow too rapidly, Karnish said that she herself — or perhaps another employee — will pick up the Santa duties when Hardy leaves.

"Unless Lovettsville doubles in size, we'll probably keep responding to them all," the postmaster said.

Tagged: christmas, Lovettsville, post office, Santa Claus

Your Thoughts...

What cuts do you think the school system should make if the budget crunch is as dire as some expect?