If ever there was a natural multitasker, it’s Santa Claus. Between checking his list, then checking it twice, and making and delivering millions of toys each Christmas, he still, somehow, has time to personally respond to each hopeful letter from children around the world.
For kids in Whistler, that means dropping off their letter to an old-fashioned, cherry-red postal box at Get the Goods giftshop in Creekside, where each letter delivered will get back a personalized response from jolly ole’ St. Nick himself.
“I’m the Santa Claus,” says Get the Goods’ social media manager Jessica Chambers, a U.K. native who began the Letters to Santa program last Christmas. “I used to work in schools so it was something I used to do with the children, responding to each individual letter.”
The response last year was much bigger than she anticipated.
“I didn’t think we would get as many letters as we did. I think it was around 200,” she said. “I did not expect to write that many letters.”
Launched at the tail end of a year many of us would like to throw on the trash heap of history, Chambers said the letter-writing gave kids a much needed chance to escape from the stress around them.
“Last year was really sad. Quite a few children wrote on their Santa list about wanting COVID to go away,” she recalled. “So it’s just nice for them to believe in something that’s not bad. They may hear so many bad things at the moment just listening to their parents talking in the kitchen, so it’s nice they can have some innocence.”
So how does one intimate the festive tone and jolly demeanour of Kris Kringle for dozens of local kids? According to Chambers, it’s all about the personal touch.
“I try to find something that’s personal to them,” she said. “A lot of times they’ll mention their dog or their cat or something. Or if I notice that two letters came in from the same household, I’ll mention their sibling in my letter.”
Take one letter from a creative young girl that included a fully sketched out comic strip along with a string of silly jokes.
“I thought that was really cute because she put a lot of effort in trying to make Santa laugh. So I sent her back some jokes,” Chambers said.
Sometimes the letters hold an even deeper significance to the kids and their families, especially after what was a tough year for many.
“A couple of the parents messaged me to say they were really grateful to get a reply because they had a terrible year last year and it was something that was easy and happy for their kids,” Chambers said. “To little kids, I forget that it does mean a lot to them when they get that personal reply.”
Of course, Santa’s yuletide obligations extend beyond the mere literary; he is also tasked with the immense responsibility of fulfilling children’s holiday wishlists. So how does Chambers approach kids’ requests delicately when she’s not sure that Xbox they asked for is going to wind up under the tree on Christmas morning? Well, in true Whistler fashion, you blame it on the labour crisis.
“Because I don’t know whether or not the parents will actually get them those gifts, I normally just say, ‘We’ll see if the elves can make you that,’” she relayed. “One little girl had asked for a 3D printing pen and I wasn’t sure if she would actually get that since they’re pretty expensive, so I was like, ‘Oh, we’ll see if the elves can actually make that. Sometimes they struggle making things.’ So I normally just put it down to what the elves can and cannot make, because sometimes they can’t make the latest Xbox. They don’t have the capacity.”
The deadline to get letters into Santa is Dec. 14, with responses anticipated by Christmas, depending on the volume. Get the Goods is open Monday to Thursday in Creekside from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
