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January 17, 2026

Where Every Family Matters

USPS Operation Santa Opens for 2025

Adopt letters to Santa to help struggling families this holiday season.

The U.S. Postal Service announced that USPS Operation Santa is now open for letter adoption for the 2025 holiday season. Individuals, families, workplaces and community groups can go to USPSOperationSanta.com to adopt letters to Santa and help make the holidays brighter for children and families across the country.

This year, USPS is placing a special emphasis on adopting family letters — including a new way to do it as a team — to help ensure letters from the same household are adopted and fulfilled together.

“We invite the public to join us in spreading holiday cheer by adopting a USPS Operation Santa letter,” said Sheila Holman, the Postal Service’s vice president of marketing. “Every year, we receive far more letters than those adopting. So if you have the means, we encourage you to adopt a letter.”

Letter Adoption Now Open

Adopters can visit USPSOperationSanta.com and follow the steps below to fulfill a letter:

  1. Create a login and verify your identity
  2. Browse available letters from across the U.S
  3. Adopt the letters you love — including family letters
  4. Shop for the perfect gift through Santa’s Work Shoppe or on your own
  5. Ship your gift right away through our online catalog or from a Post Office location

To help ensure gifts arrive in time for the holidays, adopters should ship gifts no later than Dec. 13. Sending gifts as early as possible helps families know their holiday wishes have been met.

Santa’s Gift Shoppe Makes It Easy to Shop and Ship

To help make letter adoption easier than ever, Santa’s Gift Shoppe — powered by Toys“R”Us — is back this year with a much larger selection of items. Adopters can send gifts directly from the newly expanded online catalog, saving a trip to a Post Office location and keeping the experience seamless.

Santa’s Gift Shoppe is designed to:

  • Give adopters a quick, easy way to find the perfect gift
  • Save time and money — with free shipping on orders over $49
  • Streamline sending gifts directly to the recipient — because all packaging and shipping is handled for you
  • Support adopters who want to fulfill multiple letters — including family letters — in one session

“We want to make it as easy as possible to participate,” Holman added. “You can adopt single or family letters as a team, shop for the perfect gift quickly and easily online, and get it delivered directly from Santa’s Gift Shoppe, all from the comfort and convenience of home. And the best part is, the earlier you adopt, the sooner you can help make somebody’s holiday wish come true.”

How to Get Started for USPS Operation Santa

  1. Visit USPSOperationSanta.com
  2. Adopt letters beginning Nov. 17
  3. Ship gifts by Dec. 13
  4. Encourage friends, colleagues, and community groups to adopt family letters

 

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About the Author

Michael Aldrich

Michael Aldrich is Nashville Parent's Managing Editor and a Middle Tennessee arts writer. He and his wife, Alison, are the proud parents of 6-year-old Ezra and 2-year-old Norah.