All Francesca wants for Christmas is a few pairs of jeans, for her sickle cell anemia stricken 6 year-old.
Calvin wants diet pills, so he can lose weight, and the kids at school stop tormenting him, while little Rachel awaits news from her father, who was “called from God” a few years ago.
These are just a sample of the over 100,000 letters that have already been sent to Santa Claus this holiday season.
Holiday gift requests range from food, clothes, pampers and baby formula. They come from people of all ages and walks of life, including kids who can’t afford presents for their parents.
The letters addressed to Old Saint Nick have been collected at the New York Post Office’s Manhattan General Office on 33rd Street and 8th Avenue for Operation Santa Claus.
The nature of the letters can vary as much as their senders.
“Some are amusing, we had one child who told Santa off because he wasn’t happy with what he got last year”, said Peter Fontana , the Post Office’s Customer Relations Coordinator.
Unfortunately though, most sound a lot like Francesca’s, a frustrated single mother, struggling to make ends meet, who can not afford to see her child filled with effervescent happiness on Christmas Day.
Generous people like 41-year-old George McGrath and his 12-year-old son Dusty who came all the way from Phillipsburg New Jersey see Operation Santa Claus as ” a way for fortunate people who have the ability to help others who aren’t.”