December 24, 2024 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — Santa Claus once again spread Christmas cheer in parts of the Philippines by replying to letters sent by both the young and the old.
His reply letters came not from the North Pole, but from the home of the majestic Mayon Volcano.
For this year’s reply letters, Facebook group Santa Claus_PH sent out postcards featuring artwork by 26-year-old digital artist Angela Brazal from Rizal and Bicolano cartoonist Al Baleda.
Brazal’s artwork showed Kendra – the first letter sender to Santa Claus_PH – putting her letter in a mail box that was once common in the municipality of Tiwi in Albay, as well as four dogs who represent Santa Claus_PH’s “elves.”
Meanwhile, Baleda’s artwork depicts a scene where Filipinos ignite fireworks, give their presents to Santa Claus and build a Christmas tree made of clay pots, which is Tiwi’s primary product.
Mayon Volcano is the prominent background of both Brazal’s and Baleda’s works.
Brazal made the artwork for free, she told The STAR, and was inspired by Santa Claus_PH’s advocacy of spreading the joy of Christmas through writing letters.
“This is one of my artistic dreams: to inspire and bring joy to children,” she said in Filipino.
Letter writing
On its third year, Santa Claus_PH received “approximately 2,000 mails/letters from kids and (the) young at heart.”
The letters came via snail mail and from school visits of Santa Claus_PH’s “elves,” said John, who was one of the elves.
The letters received by Santa Claus_PH were five times the number of letters collected by the group in 2023, he noted.
John told The STAR that the Christmas letters, traditionally, were sent by children of overseas Filipino workers from the United States, Canada, Australia, Germany, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates.
Also, around 80 percent of the letters came from various parts of the Philippines like Metro Manila, Cavite, Rizal, Bulacan, Cebu, Samar, Leyte, Cagayan de Oro, Davao, Sorsogon, Camarines Sur and Albay, where the Santa Claus_PH movement started.
Santa Claus_PH letter writing booths were set up during this year’s Manna Filatelica stamp exhibits in Manila, Cebu and Davao, encouraging letter enthusiasts to write to Santa Claus.
Letters to Santa Claus_PH were delivered to the post office of Tiwi, with the address being “Santa Box 12-25, Tiwi Post Office, 4513 Albay, Philippines.”?Instead of paying P15 for a stamp, the letters were sent to Santa Claus_PH’s post office box in Tiwi for free and relied on donations and volunteers to carry out the campaign.
Catherine Jamora, postmaster of the Tiwi Post Office, was grateful to the Santa Claus_PH movement for reviving the tradition of sending letters every Christmas season, and for reigniting the love for letter writing in a world of smartphones, computers and social media.
“If there is no post office, Santa Claus would never be able to reply,” Jamora told The STAR in Filipino.
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