How the documentary 'Dear Santa' discovered a heart-wrenching letter
The new documentary "Dear Santa" details the herculean efforts of Operation Santa, the annual USPS initiative to get thousands of kids' letters delivered to Santa.
Director Dana Nachman recently spoke with Yahoo Entertainment about her new movie, and the heart-wrenching letter they discovered.
"So when we first started this ... one of our executives said, 'make sure you have a letter from an LGBTQ kid.' I'm like, 'how do you suggest we find them?'" Nachman said of the difficult task.
But while she was on a shoot, a crew member called her with news of a particularly poignant letter that came in. It read, in part, "if you can speak to God, can you tell him I love him and if he loves me for being gay."
Dana recalled her excitement at finding the letter but also added, "there is some sadness in it that ... what are the messages that he's hearing that he might even think that God or Santa don't love him?"
Video Transcript
- On Christmas, he gives toys to children all around the world.
- He's going to know what I want because I'm writing a letter.
- Dear Santa.
- Dear Santa.
- Dear Santa.
DANA NACHMAN: So Operation Santa is a program that's put on by the United States Postal Service. A lot of the letters that get sent to Santa obviously go into the mail and so the United States Postal Service has been dealing with these letters for more than 100 years. So the project has gone digital in the last few years. And so now you can become an elf and you can actually take one of the letters that resonates with you and you couldn't fulfill that letter. So it's really nice that this is an opportunity for all of us. I did it last year. It was super fun. And even though I was really busy making the film, this year I'm going to do 10 letters, I think.
- Santa needs elves because this is a really big world and he can't possibly do it all himself. We're there to help him and, you know, do some of the legwork for him so that he doesn't have to work so hard.
DANA NACHMAN: So when we first started this, we were talking to our whole team. Everybody agreed that it would be great if the film was as diverse as possible in every way, shape, or form. And one of our executives said, you know, make sure you have a letter from an LGBTQ kid. I'm like how do you suggest we find that, you know? I kind of, like, put [INAUDIBLE], like, that's never going to happen. And then I was actually driving home from the shoot in Chico with the fire victims, and my phone rings, and it was one of the people on our crew saying, Dana, you are not going believe this. They read this letter to me from a little boy.
- "Dear Santa, do you support the LGBTQ community? And if you can speak to God, can you tell him I love him and if he loves me for being gay. Thank you." That's all this letter says.
DANA NACHMAN: And it just slays you. I mean, it is just the saddest, most poignant letter you've ever read, right? So I was so excited about this, that, oh, my God, I got our letter. That kid had actually two elves that responded to him, and it was so great, and we're so excited about that. And-- but there is some sadness in it that, you know, what's-- what are the messages that he's hearing that he might even think that God or Santa don't love him.
So with most of the letters we-- what we wrote to the parents about the film, we attach the letter. So with this boy's letter we did not attach the letter because we weren't sure what his home life was like. He might-- it might be fine, but he alluded to being concerned that people people, or entities like God or Santa, might not love him because he was gay. And so we didn't want to make it a precarious situation if-- we wanted to assess that over the phone rather than attaching the letter and outing this poor boy.
And I think that often-- you know, we all know that there's poverty in America. In an intellectual way we know that. But to read somebody's letter about what they're saying, and why they want it, and most people-- I mean, so many people don't even ask for themselves, they ask for somebody else, which is hugely touching. There is so much power in these letters. And I think it is because of the handwriting and the little drawings that kids write.
- I wrote about Dutch bunnies because I love rabbits a lot. They just filled my heart up with joy.
DANA NACHMAN: After people watch this movie, if they think it was cool what all the elves were doing, they can apply to become elves themselves. Everybody, unless you're really naughty, get accepted. So you can just go on to USPSOperationSanta.com, and apply, and then look through all the letters, and pick the ones out that are-- that resonates to you. And then you fulfill the letters by, you know, buying, you know, either what they want, or making something, or, you know-- I think one of the people in the film said it so well, which I love, is it's not what you have that matters, it's what you do with what you have. And so, like, literally I think, you know, there could be an envelope with glitter in it, and stickers, and a candy cane. And if that's from Santa, that's great.
