Filmmaker Dana Nachman wanted to make a documentary about the United States Postal Service’s Operation Santa program for years, but it never seemed like the right time. Then in 2018 she got up some courage and decided to cold email the USPS press office.
They responded immediately and agreed to give her and a film crew unprecedented access to the inner workings of this charitable program. But there was one big rule: Don’t ruin Christmas for kids.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of letters to Santa go through the USPS system, asking for everything from toys to food. The program, which has been running in some form for over 107 years, takes letters from kids in need, matches them up with donors and helps make Christmas wishes come true.
“Dear Santa,” out Dec. 4 from IFC Films, takes viewers inside the program showing the kids writing the letters, the postal workers who sort and categorize them (Santa’s helpers) and the adoptees who go out and purchase the gifts they ask for.
“I think a lot of people don’t know it exists,” Nachman said. “I didn’t!”