Have some extra cash to spend around the holiday season? Even the littlest bit can go a long way in the over 80 year old Operation Santa program. Every year letters pile up at the James A. Farley Post Office from (mostly needy) kids writing to Santa Claus (read one of them here). Their wish lists don't make it to the North Pole, but with New Yorkers pitching in every year, it's as if they did. There's still time to pick up a letter so you can help make someone's Christmas a little more merry this year. Head to the Farley Post Office (bring an ID) located at 421 Eighth Ave today through 4pm or Monday (from 9 to 4:30pm). Note: they are currently in desperate need of people who can read Spanish.
Many of the letters can be heartbreaking, so try to pick one that comes from a family in need and could use a little magic this season. And if you find a child is asking for something practical for their family, why not throw in a toy or two as well?
Metro is reporting that the future of the program may be in trouble "once the post office becomes the new Moynihan Station transit hub with Madison Square Garden."
“The idea to get people in this hard-hearted city to do this in the Christmas season for kids who aren’t getting much under the tree is moving,” said Kent Barwick, president of the Municipal Art Society, which is hoping to convince the Empire State Development Corp., the state agency overseeing the project, to retain the post office’s retail functions in the lobby of the new station. “What we hear is MSG felt it would be a nice place to sell tickets,” Barwick said. But the post office “is not just a great building, it’s a great institution.”
“We would never be the Grinch who stole Christmas,” ESDC spokesman Warner Johnston said. “It’s not going to be a 365-day Operation Santa, but we’ll continue the tradition as it exists today.”
We're hoping it will continue for many years to come, it's a program that really works -- of the nearly 500,000 letters that were received last year, 300,000 were answered.
