Operation Santa Claus program in Alaska
The Salvation Army in cooperation with the Alaska Air National Guard use C-130 Hercules to distribute every year gifts to children living in remote places in Alaska before Christmas. [6]
Operation Santa Claus is a yearly initiative undertaken by the United States Postal Service. It was started in 1912 when United States Postmaster General Frank Hitchcock authorized local postmasters to start responding to needy children, with the first one starting at the James Farley Post Office. [1] [2]
For years, the program has invited children to send letters to Santa Claus at 123 Elf Road, North Pole 88888. Members of the public may volunteer to "adopt" these letters. Letter adopters reply to the children and may send them gifts. [3] While the adoption program used to operate out of selected post offices to which letters had been distributed and volunteers had to visit those post offices to receive the letters they were adopting, [4] since 2019, the adoption program has been carried out online. [5]
The Salvation Army in cooperation with the Alaska Air National Guard use C-130 Hercules to distribute every year gifts to children living in remote places in Alaska before Christmas. [6]
In 2005 the initiative was featured on the Fox network reality TV special Dear Santa, where six children were chosen from the initiative to have their Christmas wishes granted. The special was hosted by Jim Belushi and featured appearances from celebrities that included Clay Aiken, Hilary Duff, Raven Symoné, and Tony Hawk. [7] A compilation CD was created to coincide with the show and was sold through the United States Postal Service. [8] [9]
The United States postmaster general (PMG) is the chief executive officer of the United States Postal Service (USPS). The PMG is responsible for managing and directing the day-to-day operations of the agency.
The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or simply the Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the United States, its insular areas and associated states. It is one of a few government agencies explicitly authorized by the Constitution of the United States. As of 2023, the USPS has 525,469 career employees and 114,623 non-career employees.
A postal code is a series of letters or digits or both, sometimes including spaces or punctuation, included in a postal address for the purpose of sorting mail.
A ZIP Code is a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service (USPS). The term ZIP was chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently and quickly when senders use the code in the postal address. The Philippine Postal Corporation also uses this terminology for the postal code system in the Philippines.
Santa Claus is a town in Spencer County, Indiana, United States, in the southwestern part of the state. The population was 2,586 at the 2020 census. It is home to numerous Christmas themed attractions, including Holiday World & Splashin' Safari and Santa's Candy Castle.
North Pole is a small city in the Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska, United States. Incorporated in 1953, it is part of the Fairbanks metropolitan statistical area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 2,243, up from 2,117 in 2010. Despite its name, the city is about 1,700 miles (2,700 km) south of Earth's geographic North Pole and 125 miles (201 km) south of the Arctic Circle.
Canada Post Corporation, trading as Canada Post, is a Canadian Crown corporation that functions as the primary postal operator in Canada.
Postal service in the United States began with the delivery of stampless letters whose cost was borne by the receiving person, later encompassed pre-paid letters carried by private mail carriers and provisional post offices, and culminated in a system of universal prepayment that required all letters to bear nationally issued adhesive postage stamps.
A Canadian postal code is a six-character string that forms part of a postal address in Canada. Like British, Irish, and Dutch postcodes, Canada's postal codes are alphanumeric. They are in the format A1A 1A1, where A is a letter and 1 is a digit, with a space separating the third and fourth characters. As of October 2019, there were 876,445 postal codes, using forward sortation areas (FSAs), from A0A in Newfoundland to Y1A in Yukon.
A Christmas stamp is a postage stamp with a Christmas theme, intended for use on seasonal mail such as Christmas cards. Many countries of the world issue such stamps, which are regular postage stamps and are usually valid for postage year-round. They usually go on sale some time between early October and early December, and are printed in considerable quantities.
The United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), or the Postal Inspectors, is the federal law enforcement arm of the United States Postal Service. It supports and protects the U.S. Postal Service, its employees, infrastructure, and customers by enforcing the laws that defend the United States' mail system from illegal or dangerous use. Its jurisdiction covers any crimes that may adversely affect or fraudulently use the U.S. Mail, the postal system, or postal employees. With roots going back to the late 18th century, the USPIS is the country's oldest continuously operating federal law enforcement agency.
Frank Harris Hitchcock, was chairman of Republican National Committee from 1908 to 1909. He was then Postmaster General of the United States under President William Howard Taft from 1909 to 1913.
The James A. Farley Building is a mixed-use structure in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, which formerly served as the city's main United States Postal Service (USPS) branch. Designed by McKim, Mead & White in the Beaux-Arts style, the structure was built between 1911 and 1914, with an annex constructed between 1932 and 1935. The Farley Building, at 421 Eighth Avenue between 31st Street and 33rd Street in Midtown Manhattan, faces Pennsylvania Station and Madison Square Garden to the east.
Dear Santa is a 2005 American Christmas reality show special that aired on December 9, 2005 on the Fox network. Directed by Jim Hunziker, the special was hosted by Jim Belushi and featured celebrities such as Clay Aiken, Hilary Duff, Raven Symoné, and Tony Hawk.
In Christmas folklore and legends, Santa's Workshop is the workshop where Santa Claus and his elves live and make the toys and presents given out at Christmas. The exact location of Santa's workshop varies depending upon local culture, however it is generally believed to be somewhere around or on the North Pole. There are at least eight claimed locations for his workshop. For example, people in Canada send letters to Santa's Workshop at his North Pole location in Canada, with the unique postal code of "H0H 0H0". People in the United States believe the workshop is a sprawling commune located at the North Pole. Some people in the United Kingdom and Finland believe that Father Christmas' Workshop is located in Finland in Korvatunturi, Lapland. In addition to housing the factory where toys are either manufactured or distributed by the elves, the complex also houses the residence of Santa, his wife, companions, and all of the reindeer.
Dear God is a 1996 American comedy film distributed by Paramount Pictures, directed by Garry Marshall and starring Greg Kinnear and Laurie Metcalf.
NORAD Tracks Santa is an annual Christmas-themed program in which North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) simulates the tracking of Santa Claus, who is said to leave the North Pole to travel around the world on his mission to deliver presents to children every year on Christmas Eve. The program starts on December 1, but the actual Santa-tracking simulation starts at midnight annually on December 24. It is a community outreach function of NORAD, and has been held annually since 1955.
Santa Claus is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring gifts during the late evening and overnight hours on Christmas Eve. He is said to accomplish this with the aid of Christmas elves, who make the toys in his workshop, and with the aid of flying reindeer who pull his sleigh through the air.
John Duval Gluck Jr. was an American philanthropist, customs broker, and con artist who is best known for popularizing the practice of sending and answering letters to Santa Claus in New York City. Gluck's organization, the Santa Claus Association, would receive letters addressed to Santa Claus from impoverished children, investigate them to ensure that they were truly needy, and if approved would send gifts to those children.
emailSanta.com is a Christmas-themed entertainment website which simulates emailing Santa Claus, a character from Christmas legends. It also provides various other Christmas-themed simulations. Users compose their letter by filling in blank fields, and the website responds with a computer-generated letter which is claimed to be from Santa Claus.
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