I love Christmas. I guess this stems from my childhood memories of Christmas Eve.
In the mountains, Santa brings the gifts on Christmas Eve. Like most children, I was scared of Santa Claus, but I was so eager to get the present, I went just close enough to grab it. In addition to the present, each child got a small brown bag filled with candy, nuts, and fruit. We just couldn't wait for the bag. We hid them if different places, With seven children, it was easy to sneak a piece of the good candy from someone else when yours was gone. We got one present, but it was a good one, one we had wanted all year, usually chosen from the Sears catalog. Christmas was sacred. We waited all year to begin working on the Christmas play at school. God, Jesus, and even Christmas was spoken all day long. When all of the lights went out and the curtains were pulled to reveal the nativity scene, we were in awe. "Silent Night", "Away in a Manger", and many Christmas songs were sang by the children and audience in the one room schoolhouse. I wish my children could have experienced this. I tell them and my grandchildren all of the wondeful stories of growing up in the mountains. We were rich.
WASHINGTON — No matter if children are naughty or nice, they won't get a reply from Santa this year, as the US Postal Service has blocked mail to a tiny Alaska town that answered Christmas letters for decades.
Since 1954, thousands of volunteers in the Christmas-crazy town of North Pole have run the heart-warming tradition of replying to letters addressed "Santa Claus, The North Pole" forwarded to them by the USPS. But no more.
Officials cut the tradition after an "Operation Santa" volunteer working on the program in Maryland was revealed last year to be a registered sex offender.
Doug Isaacson, mayor of North Pole -- where streets have been given names like Santa Claus Lane or St. Nicholas Drive -- slammed the move as "Grinch-like."
He noted that in five decades the letters -- some 150,000 last year -- have been answered without incident.
"North Pole, Alaska, is known as the city where the spirit of Christmas lives year round," Isaacson lamented to CNN on Friday.
The new policy is a privacy issue, safeguarding young children from their personal information being given out, said Postal Service spokesman Ernie Swanson.
"There's been concern on the part of outsiders about the Postal Service just handing out this information to people and what could happen," he told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.
Isaacson said children could still get around the new policy by addressing letters to a specific address in his town of 2,100: "Santa Claus House, North Pole, Alaska" or even simply the city hall, and they will get a reply with a North Pole postmark.
"But if you just send it to Santa at North Pole, Alaska... the grinch might steal it," he warned.
Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski wrote to US Postmaster General John Potter protesting the cut hitting a town whose very identity is tied to Christmas.
"Children across the world will be anticipating a letter from Santa," she wrote.
"I believe that a small action by the Postal Service to continue the tradition... could go a long way to bring joy to these children and their families."
Copyright © 2009 AFP.
