Scroll down for our former Directory
of Operation Santa post offices

UPDATE
Operation Santa available only in New York City and Chicago

A NBC Nightly News video on December 19th and an Associated Press story of December 20th reported that the USPS briefly closed its 96 year old Operation Santa program due to concerns over children's privacy. The Postal Service resumed the program December 20th, but only in Chicago and in New York City, and with tighter controls. Children's addresses would be removed from their letters, a number would be assigned to each letter, and volunteers could return to the post office with their gifts. Postal workers will then ship the gifts on to children.

From the AP December 20th story: "A sex offender is responsible for taking away some of the joy of the Postal Service's Operation Santa program: Volunteers who answer children's letters to Santa can no longer deliver gifts in person — or even know where they're going. The program resumed Saturday morning in New York and Chicago, three days after it was abruptly suspended after a postal worker in Maryland recognized one volunteer as a registered offender. A postal inspector intervened before the individual could answer a child's letter, but officials decided changes had to be made."

Be An Elf hopes to work with the USPS starting in 2009 to develop new software which will allow the Postal Service to remove children's addresses and post thousands of letters from low income children online, perhaps at this website. When a volunteer clicks on "Send a gift", a shipping label with a barcode would be printed out with no address. Only post office scanners could decipher the barcode and then deliver the gift, perhaps even with no postage needed.

You will find addresses for the last remaining Operation Santa branches open, one in Chicago and one in New York City, in our Directory.

If you do not live in those cities, here are suggestions for other ways to volunteer.

Your gift will help us develop new software to protect children's privacy.

Donations online are tax-deductible, and may be made anonymously.

Please donate now!

NOTE

As of December 20th, only two postal branches in the US still offer Operation Letters to Santa: the James A Farley Post office in New York City, and the Cardiss Collins Post Office in Chicago. Both addresses may be found below.

All other Operation Santa branches below stopped offering Letters to Santa on December 19th. Please see the top of this page for the reasons why the USPS made this decision.

Our former Directory is still posted below.

Check our site for updates. We'll be back next Christmas season!

 

NATIONAL DIRECTORY (PARTIAL) OF
'OPERATION SANTA CLAUS' POSTAL BRANCHES

Below is the beginning of a new national directory of Operation Santa Claus postal branches. It's incomplete, and we have applied to the USPS in Washington DC to obtain a complete list, or a page at the USPS site offering this information.

We'd like to expand the directory below. We rely on information for this directory which is provided by our volunteer elves around the nation. Please email us the phone number and address of the branch in your city as soon as you learn it, and we'll post it below. We must have the phone number to verify new listings before we include them. Our email is on our contact page.

IF YOUR CITY IS NOT LISTED BELOW

If you don't see a city near you listed below, try our Other ways to volunteer page. Also, there is a page at the USPS website which lists press releases by post offices in every State. Click on your State, and scan the list for October through December, for news releases which have the word Santa in the title. Usually these announce postal branches which offer letters to Santa. DO NOT under any circumstances call the people listed on USPS press releases; these contacts are for news media only. USPS press releases are listed State by State on this page at the USPS site -- again, do NOT call the contacts listed on the releases, please.

Remember, all volunteers must bring a photo ID in order to get letters to Santa.

POST OFFICE BRANCHES OFFERING
OPERATION SANTA CLAUS

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

LOS ANGELES

Main Processing and Distribution Center
7001 South Central Avenue
Los Angeles CA 90059
Entrance to the North Pole room is between Florence Ave & Gage Ave

Hours: Monday - Saturday, 9am - 2pm
Tel: (323)586-4380

In the main Los Angeles Post Office, above, you'll first pass through security in the front. When you arrive in the "North Pole" room, you'll you'll find two postal employees opening, reading and sorting the letters to Santa, placing some into boxes labeled, "Needy Kids", "Needy Families', "Spanish Language," and "Wish Letters." You can see this room briefly in our YouTube video at the bottom of our home page.


SANTA ANA

3101 West Sunflower Ave
Santa Ana CA 92799
(714)662-6215


SANTA CLARITA

Sierra Coastal District
28201 Franklin Parkway
Santa Clarita CA 91383
(661)775-6681

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

Listed by area code

SACRAMENTO

Downtown Plaza Shopping Center / K Street Mall
545 L Street Ste 1027
Sacramento CA
Hours: Monday - Saturday, 10am - 7pm
Through Saturday, December 23rd

SAN FRANCISCO

The Embarcadero Postal Center - 2nd Floor
390 Main St. Ste 220, San Francisco, CA 94105
(415)371-5160

PIER 39 Post Office
San Francisco

SAUSILITO

150 Harbor Dr
415 332-0227

ILLINOIS

CHICAGO

Cardiss Collins Post Office
433 W. Harrison
Second floor retail lobby
Chicago, Illinois 60607
312-983-8697

MASSACHUSETTS

Boston

Lobby of the Fort Point Station
25 Dorchester Ave, Boston
Hours for Operation Santa are Monday - Friday 9am-2pm
Starts December 8th, 2008

617-654-5776
617-654-5700

MISSOURI

ST. LOUIS

A volunteer writes that she was unable to find the Operation Santa program there, after making calls to several local branches. No one she spoke to at the USPS there knew about the program.

NEW JERSEY

Newark

Newark Post Office
2 Federal Square
Newark, NJ 07102

NEW YORK

NEW YORK CITY

In New York City, the "Operation Santa " room may be found at:

Ground floor
James A. Farley Post Office
421 8th Avenue
New York, NY 10199-9998
(33rd Street & 8th Avenue - very near Penn Station)

For more information, leave a voice message at: (212)330-3000
Your call will be returned.

Hours: are Monday - Friday from 9 am to 4:30 pm (Thursdays until 7 pm)
Saturdays from 9 am to 4 pm
December 3 - 24, 2007

You may pick up a maximum of 6 letters, only in person. It's possible that companies may send executives who may pick up many more letters, which may in turn be distributed to employees.

Huntington Station

888 Jericho Turnpike
Huntington Station, NY 11746-7505
631-427-1952

Islandia

1377 Motor Parkway
Islandia, NY 11749
631-582-7556

OHIO

Columbus

Washington Courthouse Post Office

PENNSYLVANIA

Philadelphia

30th Street Post Office
Philadelphia, PA
215-895-9777

WASHINGTON DC

National Capitol Post Office
2 Massachusetts Ave NW
Washington, DC 20001
(800) 275-8777

Brentwood Post Office
900 Brentwood Rd NE
Washington, DC
(800) 275-8777

Call for hours of service (may close at 2pm)

THIS DIRECTORY IS COMPILED ONLY FROM INFORMATION
SENT TO US BY VOLUNTTERS, AND THAT'S YOU! PLEASE
SEND US NEW LISTINGS TO INCLUDE ON THIS PAGE.

We'll post listings for additional cities on this page whenever our volunteers -- that's you, if you like! -- send us new locatons in their city.

Please email us the phone number and address of the branch in your city offering the Operation Santa program. After we confirm your information by phone, we will post it in our new directory above. Our email is on our contact page.

Logo design donated by Giovanni Dizon (gdizon at mac.com). Principal photography licensed through istockphoto.com. Additional photography donated by elves. Video filmed by Patrick Reynolds and edited by James Connolly (jamespc1234 at msn.com). Principal website design and digital imaging donated by art101.com. Additional website design and site updates donated by elves. © 2007 BeAnElf.org. All rights reserved.