Red-and-white mailboxes reading “North Pole Express” will be placed throughout Gainesville for the next week to collect letters for Santa Claus.
The mailboxes are part of Operation Letters to Santa, an annual program run by the city that lets children write to Santa about what it means to have good character and what they want for Christmas.
The department usually gets more than 200 letters a year, said Mary Harker, the Gainesville Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs program coordinator for education.
Children can send letters until Dec. 9, she said. They can be mailed, faxed or submitted to one of the red mailboxes at the Porters Community Center, Eastside Community Center and the PRCA Administrative Office.
Since the program started six years ago, Harker said some letters have been touching, even heartbreaking.
“You never know what you’re gonna get,” the 49-year-old said. “They want a puppy, or they want their grandmother back.”
Acting as Santa’s elves, staff members read each letter and send one back to each child.
“We want to keep that old tradition of writing letters to people and then receiving letters back,” Harker said.
While kids await Santa’s responses, they can see him Saturday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at The Thomas Center for the annual holiday tree-lighting celebration.
David Ballard, the events coordinator for PRCA, said more than 1,000 people usually come.
Horse-drawn wagon rides around the Duckpond neighborhood will be offered for $7 for adults and $3 for children.
A 20-foot-tall holiday tree will light up The Thomas Center, which will be secularly decorated with wreaths and bows, he said.
“We celebrate the holiday season to be inclusive of all faiths,” Ballard said.
