‘Dear Santa’ shines a light on the 100-year-old ‘Operation Santa’ Program of the United States Postal Service. Each year, hundreds of thousands of letters to Santa arrive at Post Offices around the country. Through Operation Santa, the United States Postal Service makes it possible for the public to safely adopt these letters and make children’s dreams come true. The film invites audiences along for the magic of this massive endeavor. Traveling the country, much like Santa does on Christmas Eve, the film focuses on select ‘Operation Santa’ Centers: some in metropolitan areas like the massive operation in New York City and others in small towns where the Post Office is the heart of the community.

Check out my interview with the Director of the film here

A charming way to kick-off our film as we see little kids across the world interviewed and gave their perspective of what Christmas and who Santa Clause is.

Next, we see how the USPS collects these letters from these kids every year, and people come in and pick from the litter of letters. From Churches to Real Estate to Construction, we see people from all sorts of jobs come in and pick kids to make their Christmas wishes come true. We hear one gentleman talk about how it started with just a couple of people in his office, and this particular year, they were up to 64 and would get presents for over 100+ children.

As the time nears, we are beginning to see the pressure that amounts from trying to make this come off as perfect, but one thing I loved was while slight complaining about the pressure to pull it off, everyone is aware how important it is to make this works for the kids.

Although Christmas is one of the best holidays, as a parent, it can be extremely stressful. We want to give our kids the best and what they want, but sometimes we can’t afford to do it all, and to know that there are people in this world making dreams come true is a real sign of hope.

As we start to see the gifts dispersed to these kids and their looks are just priceless. From the family that got a puppy, which melts your heart as you see the pure joy in their faces, I am in tears to the little girl who asked for a bunny. This is beautiful.

Last, Dear Santa is packed with a beautiful story of hope, love, compassion, caring, and all in the name of one of the most memorable times of the year for kids. Whether you are 5 or 50, you have memories of what it was like Christmas morning, searching to see if you got what you wanted from Santa.

The Verdict

‘Dear Santa reminds us that Christmas is so much more than just giving presents.’