Santa's Mailbox is coming to town

Even Santa is doing things differently this year. In order to keep everyone safe during the coronavirus pandemic, the Kiwanis Club of Findlay is taking a break from hosting Santa's House. Club members instead are organizing an event called Santa's Mailbox. Children are encouraged to write letters to Santa and drop them in one of the two special mailboxes located downtown: in front of Trends! On Main, 501 S. Main St.; and Smarty Pants Findlay, 618 S. Main St. Special Kiwanian elves will then help Santa by writing back to the children. "It's kind of a bummer that we can't do it this year, but we thought this is probably the safest route," said club member Danielle Wilkin when asked about the traditional Santa's House. Wilkin and fellow Kiwanian Corey Knight are co-chairing the project. Santa's House — an event held every holiday season involving visits with Santa at St. Andrew's United Methodist Church — has been a project of the Kiwanis Club since 2000. Prior to that, Laureate Beta Phi of Beta Sigma Phi partnered with the Findlay Downtown Area Association to sponsor the event which typically attracts about 5,000 visitors annually. Wilkin said the club started discussing options months ago. "Finally in August it was like, OK, it doesn't look like it's going to happen in person, especially with kids and we want to keep Santa safe. We've got to keep him safe so he can visit everybody on Christmas Eve," she laughed. Alternative activities were considered, but in the end, they decided that Santa's Mailbox would be the most plausible idea. "We didn't want to plan a whole alternative event and then have to cancel at the last second," Wilkin said. "Corey has a son and I have two boys, too. We know how important Santa's House is to tradition. We wanted to still give that to families, even though we can't do it in a traditional sense." Letters may be dropped off through Dec. 14. The name of the child and the address must be included so a reply can be sent, said Wilkin. "Santa's House has been a tradition that I've really enjoyed. I think Findlay at Christmastime is magical. It's my favorite time of year in town," she said. Even before she was a Kiwanis member, Wilkin took her own boys to visit Santa's House. "So it's really important to kind of still bring that magic of Santa's House. We'll just bring it right to your mailbox." Wilkin and Knight are the head elves for the project. They will provide samples of cheery letters that their fellow elves can refer to when replying to the children. In the past, some children have brought letters along when they visited Santa's House. Wilkin said those have been kept in a special box. These letters will probably be added to those for Santa to peruse later, she said. "We've never thought to have Santa's elves return them before, so this is kind of a fun thing," she said. Santa's House is a favorite event for both the community and club members, she added. "I'm glad we can still kind of bring this to them in some type of variation," said Wilkin. "I know this is a year where nothing is normal, and I know a lot of our favorite traditions haven't been able to happen. I just want people to know that we are still going to bring this to them. And we still want to make sure everybody has a merry Christmas." Wolf: 419-427-8419 jeanniewolf@thecourier.com