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A postal worker sifts through the letters sent by children to redact any personal information at the Phoenix Processing and Distribution Center.

For more than 100 years, the U.S. Postal Service has been a key ally of Santa Claus, helping not only with deliveries but also fulfilling children's holiday wishes.

And, as the world goes digital, so does Santa and his helpers at post offices nationwide.

Nearly every letter dropped in a federal mailbox in Phoenix ends up on the south side of Van Buren and 49th streets.

"This is the Phoenix Processing and Distribution Center where we sort our letters, mainly for the Phoenix area," Ross Pfaff said while walking through the giant building.

Pfaff is the marketing manager for the Arizona and New Mexico district of the Postal Service.

His colleague, Rod Spurgeon, is the communications specialist at the center, and he pointed out, "This facility processes just letters," because all packages go to their West Valley facility.

Despite the absence of packages, a giant pretzel-like metal system, looking a lot like a household air duct system, winds its way through the entire east end of the building.

"We lovingly call it 'The Barney," Spurgeon shared, referencing its purple color. And it's "the size of about a football field."

Letter-To-Letter

Each year, tens of billions of letters pass through The Barney for processing, the bulk of them in December.

An army of U.S. postal employees have worked first, second and third shifts over the past six weeks, keeping an eye out for letters from the Valley's littlest residents.

Under the code name, "Operation Santa," it's been their job at the U.S. Postal Service since 1912.

"The Postmaster in New York City authorized us to respond to the letters," Pfaff said about the program's beginnings, on behalf of the entire U.S. Postal Service.

Holliday Moore/KJZZ

Letters children wrote to Santa.

Originally, he said, the postal workers and neighborhood volunteers became ambassadors to Santa, responding to letters and, on occasion, helping out entire families in need.

In more than three decades working for the Postal Service, Pfaff said he's seen letters asking Santa for help at every age.

"I personally [have seen a letter from] a mother who couldn't afford Christmas dinner for her children," he recalled. He and his fellow USPS workers went to work.

"We provided a beautiful dinner for them, along with some beds. They didn't even have beds to sleep in."

As the needs have grown over the years, the Postal Service has expanded the program and shared the responsibility with the community.

"Follow me," Pfaff motioned ahead, "I'll show you where the Santa letters are."

The Workshop

He and Spurgeon made several turns past massive cages stacked with semi-translucent boxes, all filled with letters.

Finally, between a fortress of temporary postal cubbies, the two men stop at a desk. On top, are two postal trays, each about two feet long.

"We get about 240 pieces maybe," Pfaff said referring to the number of letters he can stack in one tray for sorting. "So, imagine five of those trays. Each day, 1,000 to 1,200 Santa letters arrive."

Because neither the giver nor the receiver can ever know who is on either end of the gift, the postal employees must remove all personal details from the outside envelope, except the child's first name.

"It would take physical hours for someone to redact the information to prepare these letters," Spurgeon explained, "So, it was very time-consuming."

Today, a giant robotic arm hums inside the giant cages, swinging its arm over the boxes stacked 10 feet high.

It emits a red laser, scanning envelopes in search of those with missing addresses. Nearly all found in today's batch are addressed "To Santa."

Compared to a decade ago, Pfaff has noticed the stacks of letters to Santa are smaller.

"We're down to about a third in hand-written letters for Santa," he estimated. "Keep in mind that over the last 10 years, we've reduced our staffing significantly through attrition."

"I've seen letters where children have requested a place to live, or things as simple as a good meal for Christmas."
— Ross Pfaff, U.S. Postal Service

Delivering Cheer

At about 1,100 letters to Santa a day, it's still more than a single post office can handle, so the Postal Service has launched a digital version of Operation Santa in 2017.

"We're trying to reach out to more charitable individuals," Pfaff said.

He said Phoenix is one of seven cities this year testing the digital Operation Santa system through its DeliverCheer.com website.

It not only eases their load, but also expands it to individuals, charities and businesses with other resources.

"I've seen children ask Santa to give their dad a job," Spurgeon remembered in the past. With the system online, "let's say somebody in the Valley has an opportunity to give someone a job and they see their chance to adopt a letter, we're going to act as the intermediary and make contact for them."

Pfaff is optimistic it could help with other wishes sent to Santa.

"I've seen letters where children have requested a place to live, or things as simple as a good meal for Christmas."

Visitors to the website can already see the latest batch of hand written letters scanned onto the site.

"'Dear Santa,'" Pfaff began, reading from one in bright red marker, "'My name is Hayden. What I would like for Christmas is for my mom to have a cat that loves her like I do.'"

He smiled with pride for the letter's author.

"There's nothing more heartwarming than somebody asking for something for someone else."

Then he placed the letter on top of the stack.

Spurgeon clicked on another letter that's already been redacted to show only the message and the child's first name.

"This is a letter written by a child, and it looks like it's herself with Santa Claus."

He tilts the monitor to show the vibrant artwork of a little girl holding Santa's hands with the words, "I love you Santa" written at the top.

Pfaff clicked on one more letter online.

"Travis is making us a picture here of ... " he took a moment turning the monitor to see if he could make out the image, "I don't know what it is," he decided. "But, if I was Santa, I would put it up on my fridge, because it's just that beautiful!"

Santa's Helpers

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Children's letters to Santa at the Phoenix Processing and Distribution Center getting ready to depart to the North Pole.

Volunteers who choose to adopt letters can do it as an individual or as a group.

Pfaff held up a printed sheet with a barcode on it from one of the letter transactions.

"When you adopt the letter, it'll prompt you to print this page, and it tells you where to drop it off locally," he said. It also prints out a special label, so that the sender never knows where the card or gift is headed to, "but the clerk will scan it, put the label on the package, and send the piece on its way," with postage paid by the donor.

Each letter posted online is a scan of the original in full color.

Pfaff assured that, no matter how high-tech the system becomes, it will in no way replace the handwritten letter.

"No!" he exclaimed when asked if children should start emailing their letters to Santa. "We're the U.S. Postal Service. We want letters! And, to me, there is nothing more exciting than getting that unexpected letter in the mail."

After all, it would not be in the holiday spirit to put Santa's helpers out of work.