Volunteers in this 1850s log cabin post office have been answering letters to Santa since at least 1929, and possibly as far back as 1914.
(Devan Ridgway / WFIU-WTIU)
Every year, tens of thousands of letters to Santa are answered by volunteers in Santa Claus, Indiana. The tradition dates back more than 90 years.
Today, there’s only three volunteers in the old post office, or elves as they prefer to be called. They’ve been at it for hours, surrounded by piles of cards and envelopes.
Pat Koch has been penning Christmas letters in the old post office since World War II, save for a 10-year break when she worked as a nurse in St. Louis.
Pat Koch has been responding to letters to Santa continuously since 1960 but first started writing in the 1940s. (Devan Ridgway / WFIU-WTIU)
Her father Jim Yellig began writing letters with postmaster James Martin in 1930.
“We've been told that the postmaster started answering letters in 1914,” Koch said. “When my dad came back in ‘30, he saw how busy that made the postmaster, and he started helping him.”
Last year, the small team answered over 23,000 letters.
“We can have 14 people in there answering letters, and that's it,” Koch said. “We can't have any more, so we try not to overschedule. But right now, we really need help.”
The elves use four form letters, depending on the mail they receive.
“The letters are 'dear friend', 'dear little friend' and 'Merry Christmas.' One of them says, ‘Sometimes I can't give you everything you want,’” she said. “We try to find a letter that suits the child's letter.”
The original 1856 Santa Claus post office has been rehomed several times: first to Holiday World amusement park in 1946 and again in 2012 to its present location. (Devan Ridgway / WFIU-WTIU)
Without a team of reindeer, sending letters worldwide is expensive. According to the Santa Claus Museum, postage alone costs over $20,000, which is covered by donations.
Despite the massive investment of labor and money, Koch said she’ll be back next year, just as she has for the last 63.
“The world needs people who believe in something and in themselves and in things that are good,” she said. “And I think that's what we do.”
Across town, another holiday tradition brings thousands of letters to the town’s new post office.
These letter-writers want to send friends and loved ones envelopes with the town’s unique holiday postmark.
Every holiday postmark has to be hand-stamped: a labor intensive endeavor for the office's two clerks. (Devan Ridgway / WFIU-WTIU)
Santa Claus postmaster Cheryl Bailey is steering her small office through the December rush for a fifth year.
“It just has become such a huge part of the community and what we do here in the town,” Cheryl said. “If you didn't do it, you might be run out of town.”
The holiday postmark turns 40 this year. The additional workload requires Bailey to borrow clerks from neighboring offices. Last year, she said her office stamped almost 123,000 letters and cards, not including larger envelopes and packages.
The special stamp is designed by a local high school student and approved by the U.S. Postal Service in D.C. Unlike standard postmarks, it has to be applied by hand.
Postamster Cheryl Bailey gestured to a cart filled with letters bound for postmarking. Each of the seven boxes there contained about 450 letters. (Devan Ridgway / WFIU-WTIU)
Customers travel from around the country to stamp their letters in person, but most will mail them in.
“We get lots of packages in daily addressed to the postmaster, then we open and their cards are inside, and then we take them out and cancel them,” Bailey explained.
She retires next year, which means the daunting job will fall on a new postmaster. But like Koch, Bailey said the extra work is worth it.
“I think it just brings a smile to their face. I mean, it's just so neat,” she said. “You're getting a Christmas card, and it was postmarked from Santa Claus, Indiana.”
The Santa Claus post office uses its postmark from December first to the 24th.
