“Unveiling the Secret: The Surprising Destination of Santa’s Letters Revealed!”
However, deciding listening to the minority’s negative Nancyness wasn’t a good general policy, in 1911, a new Postmaster General, Frank Hitchcock, decided to renew the program and decreed that any letters “addressed plainly and unmistakably to ‘Santa Claus’” be sent to “responsible institutions or individuals.” By 1913, this became a permanent thing. However, once again, not without controversy, with various individuals over the years attempting to ruin the fun for everyone. Chief among them was a not so fine fellow by the name of John Gluck. Gluck helped found the Santa Claus Association in 1913, with the organization functioning as a sort of middle man between kids and Santa via the US Postal Service. Collecting funds and gifts to use to fulfill the wishes in the letters sent through U.S. Mail.
The problem here was that Gluck seemingly never had any intention of answering letters, and instead just thought it was a great way for people to give him money that he could then just keep for himself instead of buying Christmas gifts for impoverished children as was the original intent here. As for the scope of the massive sum of money he stole from children over the course of about a decade and a half, in 1915 alone he conducted a fundraiser which raised $300,000 (about $5 million today) for a new building for the growing association… and then proceeded to pocket most of the money. He continued to collect massive sums of money every year until the fact that he was keeping most of the money was discovered in 1928. Naturally, USPS ended their association with the organization, though Gluck got off scot-free and afterwards simply moved with his wife to Florida where they started a real estate company. He ultimately died in 1951 at the age of 73, and has since no doubt been roasting in Hell as a guest of Krampus the Christmas Demon.
