In December 1907, the U.S. Post Office gave John M. Hubbard, the assistant postmaster of Chicago, the job of reading the city’s letters addressed to Santa Claus. Hubbard was to match children who appeared to be in need with charitable organizations and generous individuals. “I suppose because I’m a fat, good-natured fellow I get all the extra work,” Hubbard joked with one reporter during his first week as Kris Kringle.
Before 1907, mail addressed to Santa with no real physical address were delivered to the dead-letter office in Washington, D.C., where they were subsequently destroyed. Under public pressure to save letters from children who were writing Santa Claus out of genuine need, Postmaster General George Lengerke von Meyer ordered that Santa Claus letters be turned over to local charities “to be used exclusively for philanthropic charities.”
After 31 years as assistant postmaster in Chicago, Hubbard retired in August 1920, but he was allowed to stick around as the Official Santa one last year. He estimated that his Christmas department facilitated the distribution of between 6,000 to 7,000 gifts over the years. Nearly seven months after his last day as Santa, Hubbard died in his boyhood home in Saxton’s River, Vermont. v
