CLINTON, Utah — It's the busiest time of year for the Jolly Old Fella in red — he's reading our lists and checking them twice. While Santa is finishing his last Christmas touches, the letters addressed to the North Pole are adding up. Santa tries to respond to as many letters as he can personally, but sometimes he enlists some secret helpers to help get the job done.
"December gets busy for us," said Rick Schuurman. Rick and his wife, Jan, have been Santa's helpers for 35 years, starting when Jan was a mail carrier.
"If I was your mail carrier you knew me, you don't get to not know me, so I had a lot [of letters] just off my own route then the other carriers just started bringing me their letters," she said.
Because of her hard work as one of Santa's post office elves, he gifted Jan her own Santa mailbox when she retired. At first, it was at the Schuurmans' home in Kaysville; now, it's moved with them to Clinton.
"There's nothing like good ol' snail mail and the thought of someone opening their mailbox and pulling that letter out and going, 'I got my letter back from Santa,' I can't describe what it does to me inside," Jan said.
The Schuurman's spend hours helping out Santa and they always include quirky Christmas surprises in their return letters.
"We have fun with the kids so we're always responsive to their letter," Rick said.
"I always put probably more glitter than I should," Jan added.
Despite 35 years of experience, sometimes it's the letters that surprise them.
"Oh, this is from a mom," Jan said as she opened a letter including a few dollars for postage.
The Schuurman's Santa mailbox accepts letters until December 20th because they don't want to be on Santa's naughty list if the letters don't get delivered on time.
"We have been known to drive letters around on Christmas Eve and put them in people's mailboxes because you don't want to get a Santa letter after Christmas," Jan said.
