Feel Good Friday - Be An Elf

Thanksgiving is over so it's officially okay to make this Feel Good Friday post about Christmas and tell you all about Be An Elf.

Be An Elf was started by Hans Dohm and Patrick Reynolds in 2004 with a mission "to make more underprivileged children smile on Christmas morning, and to inspire people with the real spirit of Christmas." They started by handing out presents to children who had written to Santa, now they help other volunteers adopt letters to Santa and mail gifts. Be An Elf works in conjunction with the USPS's Operation Santa (which I wrote about here) to promote their program and recruit volunteers.

In previous years you had to pick up a letter from a post office in a participating city. This year, children's letters to Santa will be made available online so people can adopt a letter from anywhere and mail gifts from 19,000 postal branches.

Families can also go to the Be An Elf site to read tips on writing to Santa and increasing the likelihood of their letter being adopted: tell the truth; ask for basic needs first; bundle letters of siblings into one envelope so volunteers can adopt the whole family and use Santa's address - 123 Elf Road, North Pole, 88888.

If you still have questions you can check the FAQs. If you need some inspiration, read these letters from previous years. 

When you're ready to get into the Christmas spirit, there are three main ways you can support the program:

• Go to the Operation Santa site, adopt a letter and respond
• Donate to Be An Elf and let them buy and send Target gift cards on your behalf
• Check these examples of how to promote Be An Elf on social media

Letters to Santa should be mailed no later than the 14th so volunteers have time to shop, and gifts need to be in the mail by the 20th to ensure an on-time delivery.

This program depends on volunteers like you so be sure to spread the word by liking the Be An Elf Facebook page and following them on Twitter @Howtobeanelf. Ho, ho ho!

Feel Good Friday - Operation Santa

The holiday season is upon us! We're in the middle of Hanukkah and Christmas is coming. To help you get in the spirit, today's Feel Good Friday is about Operation Santa.

As explained on their website, "since 1912, postal employees, charities, individual and corporate volunteers have helped children in need experience the magic of the holidays by adopting their letters sent to Santa."

The program started when Postmaster General Frank Hitchcock authorized employees to answer children's letters. It expanded in the 1940s when the volume of letters increased and charitable organizations, corporations and individuals started responding and sending gifts.

Now, Operation Santa has gone digital! There are seven cities across the U.S. where you can select a letter online and then drop off gifts at a designated Post Office: DC, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, New York, San Diego, Austin and Phoenix. If you live in one of these cities and want to participate, check out the FAQs to find out how.

For people living outside of these cities, you can check the Be An Elf website to see locations of Post Offices around the country where you can stop by in person to read and adopt letters, then return to drop off gifts.

If you want to write a letter from Santa to your own child and have it mailed back to you with a North Pole postmark, follow the instructions at Letters from Santa.

To see the results of everyone's good work and make sure you're first to know when everything gets started up next year, like the Facebook page and follow them on Twitter @OperationSanta.

Ho ho ho!