By Marcie Jessee
For the past 10 years, Don Horn has an unusual part-time job -- he''s one of Santa''s elves.
He doesn''t dress in pointy shoes, wear a pointy hat or pass out candy canes, but every year this New York native answers letters to Santa via e-mail from children across the world.
'It''s very rewarding,' Horn said. 'I think that this is a way that I can contribute to this holiday season.'
Horn is part of the Letters To Santa Project that was started 12 years ago by Cheryl Hutcherson and Debi Kennedy. These two friends were both members of an beginning Internet service called Genie, a General Electric text based online system. Hutcherson and Kennedy started a small project where children of Genie members could send an email to Santa and receive a personalized response.
Genie folded years ago, and rather than let the letters to Santa go down with it, Hutcherson moved the service to the Internet, and the small project has grown from 30 e-mails a year to 512 received in 2003. Hutcherson has dubbed herself Head Elf Organizer and is responsible for forwarding the incoming emails to each of her 27 volunteer elves.
The volunteer 'elves' are from across the world including the United States, Canada and as far as Australia and Saudi Arabia.
'The payment is knowing that somewhere in the world they have made some child''s eyes light up with the magic of Christmas,' Hutcherson said. 'There is plenty of personal satisfaction to be had when know that you are part of a very special team of people who are giving of their time and are participating behind the scenes.'
Hutcherson said she is careful about who she accepts to be an elf. Precautions are taken with new elves in order to protect the security and privacy of the child writing.
All reference to child''s home address is deleted before the elves receive them. The child''s email address is also not included to protect the child''s identity.
The volunteer elves are told to be careful of their Santa responses. Horn said he never promises a specific Christmas wish but will tell the child that Santa knows they were good this year.
'You also have to be very careful to remember that people''s lifestyles and living circumstances are very different. For example if a child doesn''t mention mommy or daddy then you had better be careful not to either, because you have to remember as Santa Claus they think you know your family makeup. If you mention mommy and there is no mommy then you''ve really done a disservice to the child as far as their belief.'
Horn said he will often reread a letter a couple of hours after writing it to make sure that he hasn''t put in any information a child hasn''t mentioned. Along with responding to the child''s comments, the elves also write about the legend of Santa Claus.
'You can talk a lot about all of the elves working hard in the workshop,' Horn said. 'I am very fond of telling of very mischievous things that they have done, and giving the elves names, and you can talk about the reindeer because kids know that.'
Horn said he has received some challenging letters in the past. One letter was sent in Italian and Horn was lucky enough to know someone who could translate. Horn wrote a response for the child and his friend translated into Italian, taking just a little bit longer than the 24-hour deadline for responding that Hutcherson set for the elves.
The elves have also received letters from grieving adults or children, asking Santa for healing and help during the holiday season. Horn said these letters give the elves a certain responsibility to stay in the role of Santa and to help the person in need.
' how do I want to respond in a caring way without hurting the person in any way,' Horn said. 'In a certain sense, I think the fact that I''m a counselor has helped me with that, because I have dealt with a lot of grief, so that when I get that kind of letter I may have less of a difficult time with it than some of the other elves.'
Horn plans to continue his seasonal secret service, as it has become a part of his Christmas traditions.
'I like picturing the child getting the letter because I know what that would have been like for me,' Horn said. 'I like keeping that magic alive too, I think so often now kids are stripped of that magic. I like the idea that this can be a magical experience that they don''t expect. The parents expect this canned response and that''s not what the child gets so there''s a certain sense of magic brought back to the parents as well.'
Santa''s elves can be contacted by emailing santa@dm.net, or by filling out a Santa form on his webpage at http://www.dm.net/~santa/.