North Pole residents up in arms over program cancellation
Every year since 1954, children all over the world have written letters to the big man himself, addressed only to “Santa Claus, North Pole.” The letters, in turn, made their way to the small town in Alaska known as North Pole, where thousands of volunteers answered them on Santa’s behalf. But now, those days are over. The trouble started last year, when a postal worker discovered that one of the Operation Santa program volunteers in Maryland was a registered sex offender and ended with the U.S Postal Service’s announcement it was ending the half-century-old program. “It’s Grinchlike that the Postal Service never informed all the little elves before the fact,” protested North Pole Mayor Doug Isaacson. The Operation Santa Program will continue to run, but children will no longer be able to address letters to the North Pole.