You can’t stop Santa’s Saugus Mail

Town Hall welcomes a retired postal worker who can’t place her “Letters to Santa” mailbox in the Saugus Post Office anymore

By Mark E. Vogler

Retired postal worker Karen Coburn said she walked out of the Saugus Post Office “heart-broken” last Friday after a former coworker told her she couldn’t set up her “Letters to Santa” mailbox anymore. For more than two decades, she’s always had a special mailbox set up in the lobby of the Cliftondale branch office, to collect letters from local kids who were hoping to get responses back from the North Pole.

“I will no longer be allowed to do so. I do not understand or agree with this,” Coburn wrote in a sad, farewell message on social media.

“I have been writing personalized letters back from Santa on my own time and dime, not just filling in the child’s name on a form letter but individualizing each and every one,” she said.

“The response I have gotten from the parents over the years of their children’s reactions is what inspired me to continue this tradition. I enjoyed all of their little notes to Santa, the ‘love You’s’ and their drawings … Last year, I did over 100 letters [but] this year, I will do none, how sad is that! I am truly sorry for the children that will be disappointed, my heart is broken and thanks for letting me vent. Merry Christmas.”

In just a few days, Coburn said, her “vent” on social media had received an inspiring response – more than 400 comments from people who rallied around her, offering support. “I was really starting to give up and throw in the towel,” she said.

“But when I saw the response from the people, that really put the fight back in me,” she said.

“The reaction from the town’s people was truly amazing. I got teary-eyed over a lot of the comments. It made me realize how tight-knit and caring our community really is,” she said.

One of the town residents she apparently moved was Town Manager Scott C. Crabtree, a father of three children. “After contacting our town manager and explaining my dilemma, he graciously offered to allow me to put Santa’s mailbox at Town Hall,” Coburn said. “Thank you, Scott for keeping the magic of Christmas and Santa Claus alive for our children.”

Karen (Perullo) Coburn is a lifelong Saugus resident with an ambitious holiday season hobby: being a pen pal to dozens of kids in town and a few others in surrounding communities who want to write letters to Santa Claus. With the support of the Saugus Post Office, she had gathered “Letters To Santa” for years – until a policy change in the Post Office that goes way beyond Saugus forced her to give up something she grew to love.

Coburn retired from the U.S. Postal Service several years ago after three decades – most of it in Saugus – she continued to receive Santa letters because she couldn’t find somebody to take over the project. For several years she’s gotten help from her husband, John, who sits down at the kitchen counter with her and reads the letters. When they’re done, they write letters back to all the children who included a return address in their Santa letters.

She graduated from Saugus High School in 1981. John, 63, moved with his family from Chelsea to Saugus when he was 15. He is a 1974 Saugus High School graduate. He worked for the Saugus Police Department for 33 years and retired in 2009 at the rank of sergeant.

Karen and John referred to one heartfelt text they received from an admirer who “hung around with the wrong crowd when he was a kid,” according to John, who got to know him while he was a police officer. The grateful kid – now a grownup – wrote a moving letter to Karen and offered her money to buy postage stamps for the Santa letters.

“I’ve always wished I could repay everything your husband did for me as a kid somehow so please let me know if you’ll need more,” the man wrote. “Even though what John did for me is worth way more. I’d probably be in prison or dead if it weren’t for him. I love what you’re doing Merry Xmas to you and John.”

John got a little emotional as he recalled some of the reaction he’s observed. “I’m so proud of the Saugus people that they don’t want to see this end. They know it’s a good thing,” he said.

Over the years, Karen said, she has received personal satisfaction, but said she never fully understood until now how special writing “Santa letters” can be. “I myself didn’t realize what big event it was and how important to people it is. I did it because I cared for the children,” she said. “I hope to do this for many, many years,” she said.

Among those who responded to her text was Alex Manoogian. “Wait a minute. Why were you responding to letters [for] Santa?” Manoogian asked. “I thought Santa himself was writing back to me. This whole time, and now at 38 years old, I find out it’s been you?”