Christmas Is Canceled: Postal Service Cancels Letter to Santa Program

For those of you who celebrate Christmas (not the "birth" of Jesus Christ and/or but the wildly festive gift-giving holiday), we have some disheartening news. The U.S. Postal Service planas to stop its popular Santa letter service, which began in 1954 in the Alaska town of North Pole, where residents volunteer to open and respond to "thousands of letters to Santa each year."

Why is the program coming to an end, you ask? Associated Press reports:

Last year, a postal worker in Maryland recognized an Operation Santa volunteer there as a registered sex offender. The postal worker interceded before the individual could answer a child's letter, but the Postal Service viewed the episode as a big enough scare to tighten rules in such programs nationwide.

Residents of North Pole, it goes without saying, are livid. "Losing the Santa-letter cache is a blow to the community of 2,100 people, who pride themselves on their Christmas ties," NPR reports. Huge tourist attractions here include an everything-Christmas store, Santa Claus House, and the post office, where visitors can get a hand-stamped postmark on their postcards and packages if they ask for it."

Other children from around the world, however, can still write to Santa.