DEAR SANTA – A Review by Hollywood Hernandez
Have you ever wondered what happens with the thousands of letters to Santa that are delivered to the post office each year? Dear Santa is a heart-warming documentary about how the post office handles those letters each year with a program called Operation Santa.
The film takes us to post offices all over the US and shows how volunteers look through the letters and fulfill the wishes of the kids who write them by actually delivering them their special Christmas wish. It’s a real labor of love making sure the kids, most of them underprivileged, get a gift at Christmas time.
The kids request all kinds of things from a bunny rabbit to a puppy and volunteers from all over the United States do their best to make their dreams come true. Most of the volunteers are regulars who hold fundraisers and hit up fellow employees for donations for the kids.
The best part of the film is the wonder of the kids when the US Post Office delivers their presents. The requests are wide and varied. In one kid’s letter, he didn’t ask for anything; he just wanted to be loved as a gay child. Another child, who lived in New York City, wanted a limousine ride for him and his family on Christmas day. (He got his wish.)
During this time of so many negative things happening in our world Dear Santa is a shining example of what people can do if we work together. The only drawback of the film is it gets a bit monotonous. For me, it took too long to get the payoff, which is the kids getting their toys. The movie is available on Amazon Prime Video. The movie has not been rated and it has a run time of 1 hour and 24 minutes. On my “Hollywood Popcorn Scale” I rate Dear Santa a MEDIUM.
