Couple Get Hundreds Of Santa's Letters By Mistake — Have Replied To Them For A Decade

Dec 22, 2020 by apost team

Dylan Parker and Jim Glaub of New York have been receiving letters addressed to Santa for over a decade, and have actually been answering them! After moving to the Chelsea Area of New York in 2010, they have made it a point to answer as many letters as they can and give back to their community through their non-profit organization, Miracle on 22nd Street. Santa may not be real, but it is truly heartwarming to see this couple go above and beyond to keep the magic alive. The tradition continues even today in 2020. With the holidays around the corner, this story is sure to give you the fuzzies! 

Jim Glaub had been living in his Chelsea apartment in New York since 2007, PEOPLE reported in 2016. Before he moved in, the former tenants told him that he would be receiving a few letters addressed to Santa as this happened to repeat every year, but it would be no more than a handful that would arrive. "And the first two years I lived there, it was that exact thing. I’d get three letters and I didn’t really think anything of it. I was like, ‘Oh, sorry — wrong number.,’” Glaub said. In 2010, his partner Dylan Parker moved in with him, but things were about the change. Though they do not know why it happened to be so that year, they began receiving hundreds of letters addressed to Santa in their mailbox. 

"In 2010 we got one letter that came in, then a couple more. By the end of November we were at hundreds. In December it was over 400 – it was quite alarming," Glaub told Metro UK. In fact, there was so much mail that it would no longer fit in their mailbox and led to a falling out between the local mailman. Frustrated with the events, Glaub and Parker decided to open the letters and see what was in them. What they found was heartbreaking accounts of children who had difficulties in their lives who asked Santa to make their lives better with the most basic necessities such as clothing, blankets, and food. 

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The common thread within these letters was that they all had come from New York City. “These were our neighbors in the Bronx, Queens, Manhattan… these were our people,” Glaub added. “I just felt this need to help them.” They first thought they could approach an organization that could help them fulfill as many wishes as they could, but when they brought it up with their friends, all of them wanted to chip in and help. The word spread quickly and more people wanted to get involved with the process. "We had so much response from people that we know and people that we didn’t know that we figured we would at least try to get them fulfilled that first year with our friends," Parker told News.com.au. 

Neither of them is sure about why they received so many letters to their house, but one theory is that in 1882, Clement Clarke Moore lived on the street and penned his classic The Night Before Christmas. Glaub told ABC News in 2019, "There was the thought that when he wrote that poem, people thought he was Santa and had delivered letters to his estate." They decided to do everything they could to answer every letter they could and used social media to enlist the help of others who wanted to do their part. Their organization, Miracle on 22nd Street, allows people to sing up to be "Elves" and pick someone whose wish they want to fulfill. They also have a Facebook group with the same name where they share updates on how their organization positively impacts the people they help. 

At this time, both Glaub and Parker no longer live in their Chelsea apartment but still continue to answer letters. In fact, the movement has only continued to grow and has touched the lives of people all around the world. PEOPLE reports that until now, not a single letter has gone unanswered. The letters that come in are most often handwritten, while some are typed, and some even include illustrations and designs. The tone of the letters also ranges from lighthearted to serious, with children asking for practical items such as beds and clothing as well as luxury items such as video game consoles. For Glaub, one letter from a boy asking Santa to deliver a bed to sleep on has stayed with him even after all of these years. “That was like a punch in the gut,” he recalled in 2017. 

With so many people being part of the movement, it is up to the person who becomes an elf to decide how they want to help the person whose letter they answer. Some people may go above and beyond, but some people may do only as much as they can. Glaub told PEOPLE in 2016 that he has even heard of stories where long-term bonds are formed between families and the people who answer their letters. “I have a group of friends who have had their family now for five years or something,” he said. “It’s just nonstop crazy stories.”

No good thing ever goes unnoticed, and this is certainly true for Miracle On 22nd Street. The more people started to understand the origin story of kindness and generosity that Parker and Glaub extended, the more they wanted to be part of the giving. “It’s just so strange! It’s caused this global effort!” Glaub told PEOPLE. “We’ve had people from Hawaii to Alaska, Germany to London, Nicaragua, Abu Dhabi, Tokyo — all helping. I guess that’s the power of social media. Why would a woman from Abu Dhabi care about some family from Corona, Queens? It’s amazing.”

While people want to know how the magic happens behind the scenes in Chelsea, New York, Glaub says that the real magic is the community all coming together to help each other, and not the apartment where the movement started. “The whole thing couldn’t be done without all the amazing elves and volunteers who make it possible every year,” he said. “It’s all about them.”

Being a part of this movement has also changed Glaub and Parker's life. Parker, who works in scientific publishing admitted to PEOPLE in 2016, "When I look back, I am most surprised about how skeptical I was and how narrowly focused I was on myself." He added, “Perhaps it’s just from getting older since the project started, but I’ve learned that contributing to something greater than ourselves — even if it is something unknown — leads to far more happiness and sense of purpose than solely focusing on our own desires.” This is most certainly a message we can get behind with the holidays just around the corner! 

What do you think of this incredible community effort? Let us know in the comments below, and be sure to share this with your friends and family. They may be inspired to become an elf this year!