A small town finds a way to send Christmas letters to Santa during postal strike

CTV National News: Canada Post temporary lay offs Canada Post has been temporarily laying off striking employees as the work stoppage reaches almost two weeks. Adrian Ghobrial reports.

For more than 40 years, Canada Post workers have helped Santa Claus deliver up to 1.5 million letters per year. Though this holiday season, the Canada Post labour stoppage has put the decades-long tradition on ice.

It’s a reality that hits hard for a small town like Port Hope, Ont., where celebrating the holiday season is a point of pride. So, they’ve found a way to ensure the children’s letters get to Santa.

Inside the Capitol Theatre, production director Katherine Smith admits with a smile that in Port Hope, “we really lean into Christmas.”

For years, the postal workers in Port Hope have volunteered their time to take part in the local Santa Claus parade, where they collect letters with wish lists from children to deliver to the North Pole.

Those same workers also give their own time to help Santa respond to each child in the town of 18,000. Though this year, many postal workers we spoke with say they fear they’ll be reprimanded if they take part in any volunteer work under the Canada Post banner.

Those fears come as Canada Post confirmed this week that it has begun temporarily laying off some postal workers as the strike that began on November 15 rolls on.

One 10-year-old we spoke with in Port Hope named Claire, says getting her letter to the North Pole, ensures that Santa can make her holiday “dream come true.”

As it turns out, the town of Port Hope is determined to ensure that each child in their community has an opportunity to take part in the age-old letter tradition.

When the municipality called, Smith and the team at the Capitol Theatre offered to repurpose the old mailbox, so that kids have a place to deliver their letters this year instead of the annual parade.

Inside the theatre, Smith is busy painting the large wooden mailbox, that previously was a stage prop.

Wearing a Santa hat, Smith tells CTV News, “I think it’s a great tradition, I think there will be a lot of relief, I bet you (the kids) they’re pretty worried about how they're going to get their letters.”

Smith adds that she and the Capitol Theatre team are simply trying to do their part to keep the magic of the holiday season alive for their town, where Christmas means so much.

Telling CTV News, “There are a lot of people who grew up in Port Hope, who’re now bringing their own kids to the Santa Claus parade to follow up on that tradition, it’s a really sweet thing to do.”

The mailbox, which has been painted red and white, with glitter and a North Pole sign, will be outside Capital Theatre for the entire holiday season, ready and waiting for children to come far and wide, to slip their wish lists into the box. From Port Hope to the North Pole, the season will go on.