B.C. friends write and deliver letters from Santa during postal strike

When Tina Marsh realized the postal strike was encroaching on Christmas, she grew increasingly concerned about the kids in her neighbourhood.

“We need to do something,” she recalls thinking. “And I was like, ‘What if we collect letters?!’”

So Tina asked her friend and co-worker Tracey Barry if she wanted to step up and help Santa too.

“I jumped on board,” Tracey smiles. “And said, ‘Let’s do it!’”

So the festive friends posted a bunch of messages on social media about their plan and constructed dynamically decorated mailboxes at the end of each other's driveways (one at 950 Thrush Pl. in Colwood, the other at 2399 Bellamy Rd. in Langford).

Then they invited kids to drop off mail addressed to the North Pole.

“We contact Santa and let him know we have them,” Tracey explains.

“Then Santa lets us know how he wants us to reply,” Tina adds.

“Then we pen them for him,” Tracey says. “And deliver them back to the kids.”

Now, a couple days later, the friends are dressed in honorary elf outfits, starting to handwrite replies to the 40 letters they’ve received so far.

They say it’s a good thing that Santa is ultimately overseeing the operation because they aren’t always aware of the most in-demand toys on the children’s list.

“There’s a lot of Squishmallows or something,” Tina laughs. “I’m not sure what those are!”

But what Tina and Tracy do know is that this is a big responsibility they don’t take lightly, especially when the kids put so much care into all the artwork they include, and so much hope into some of the wishes they make.

“I wish for war to stop in my country,” Tina says, reading through some of the letters. “[I wish] for my little sister and dad to come back home.”

“You realize this time of the year can be really tough for people,” Tracey says. “So to bring a little bit of joy feels good.”

The joy is proving to be contagious.

They have been contacted by a dozen other people offering to help, and when they mentioned the project at the day program where they support people with brain injuries, their clients offered to help decorate the reply envelopes with festive stickers.

When asked how it feels to help, one of the clients bursts into a big smile. Another says, “I’m proud to be one of Santa’s helpers.”

As Tina and Tracey prepare to drive across three municipalities to hand-deliver each reply from Santa, they hope the letters prove to be priceless for each child who receives one.

“You can never have enough kindness on the planet,” Tina says. “Especially at this time of the year.”