EVERGREEN, Colo. — When Whitney Pickering and her fiancée bought their home in Evergreen a little more than a year ago, it came with a mailbox with a lock on it that they thought would be of no use.
They bought a new mailbox, but the old one lingered.
It was kept in the garage, until Pickering realized its magic potential.
A new coat of paint and a sign that says Santa made her home at 29973 Spruce Rd. in Evergreen the place for people to send a letter to the North Pole.
"It's been crazy," said Pickering, pulling new, unanswered letters from the box.
After getting just 43 letters last year, Santa's helper has received more than 300 letters in 2020.
Many have questions about what the reindeer eat and what Santa does for fun. But, some show just how much Santa is needed this year.
Hazel asked for help being good in school and Jackson wished 2020 would stop.
Whitney said Jackson's mom reached out to say that he and his sister lost their grandmother to COVID-19.
“I’ve even had a mom who wrote me a letter cause she’s having a rough year," said Pickering. “Her dad has pretty bad cancer and so she hasn’t been able to be around him because of COVID."
The responses written back are an entire page long. All written from the heart with answers about what the reindeer eat and messages that can help both kids and adults cope.
"And obviously they do eat magical candy canes every now and then," said Pickering as she wrote a new letter. "But, mostly they’ll eat reindeer food like hay and oats two times a day."
The letter back to Hazel asked her to remember her teacher is having a tough year too, and to try to find things in common with her.
The letter to Jackson told him even though his grandmother was gone, it was ok to still talk to her.
Jackson's mom wrote back and told Pickering, “...it was about as close to real magic as you can get and you’ll forever be dear to my heart for that. You just never know when something so small could mean something so big and this was huge."
"It really got me," said Pickering, who got choked up telling that story.
Kids can still put a letter to Santa in the mailbox up until Dec. 19 to give Santa's helpers time to respond.
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