Letters to Santa often give his address at The North Pole. Those with a valid return address sometimes get a letter back.
What happens to letters to Santa Claus that are mailed in Ridgefield?
Back in the old days, when the postal service was more old-fashioned and locally oriented, that was a question to which getting an answer was easy. You’d just call the postmaster, ask, and he’d tell you.
For some 200 years, postmasters were all Ridgefield residents. The last of the locals, Richard E. Venus, retired in 1983. He would have been happy to give you every detail you wanted — even loan you copies of the letters. Which, in fact, he often did — members of local clubs would volunteer to reply to the letters, and The Press used to publish some in a story.
Times have changed.
A call to the Ridgefield post office revealed that no one there may talk to the media. We were politely and efficiently given the email address of the “manager, consumer and industry contact” for the Connecticut Valley District of the U.S. Postal Service.
She quickly responded, “I am directing you to our communications person, Christine Dugas.”
And then, maybe 10 minutes later, Ms. Dugas sent an email: “Folks at the Ridgefield Post Office help Santa, who is so busy at this time of year, by sending back a written response from Santa when they receive a letter that has a return address,” she said.
“They have responded to about 80 letters so far this year in Ridgefield,” she reported on Dec. 14.
That was quick and efficient information, especially since Ms. Dugas works way over in Providence, R.I.
Participation in the Santa letter program is voluntary, she said, both on the part of postal employees and individual post offices. So we Ridgefielders are lucky to still have postal employees who care about kids and their Santa communications.
It’s good for parents to remember what Ms. Dugas mentions: If you want your kids to get a reply from Santa, make sure the letter has a return address.
How many Santa letters does Ridgefield get without return addresses? It’s hard to tell.
Back in the Old Days, there was a “local” slot for mailing at the post office, and even some “local” mailboxes around town, including in front of the town hall. Mail was given a preliminary sort at the Ridgefield post office, and Santa letters collected there.
No more. In recent years, any letters mailed in Ridgefield went to Stamford for sorting — even a letter to your next-door neighbor. All Ridgefield’s mail is now sorted in White Plains, N.Y.
Thus, if a letter to Santa is mailed in Ridgefield, even at the Ridgefield post office, it must travel to Westchester’s sorting center before it gets seen by man or machine. And if there’s no return address, it’s hard to tell what town it came from. —J.S.
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