It's that time of year when post offices across the U.S. get flooded with letters addressed to Santa.
These letters are normally from children with video games and the latest toys dancing in their heads, but this year, some U.S. Postal Service workers have noticed a trend and have reported receiving more heartbreaking letters from kids that resemble grocery lists rather than wish lists.
"The little boy or girl who recognizes that mom or dad doesn't have a job…the first week we do this, all my tears are gone. I have no more tears to cry," Marygrace Cruz, a manager for the Postal Service’s Oakland district, told The San Francisco Chronicle.
A spokesman from that post office told the paper that the department tries to answer each letter from a child to show "someone cares." The Chronicle's report described some of the letters in Oakland. One boy asked Santa for juice and a new pen, and another for a bike that his parents cannot afford.
"My name is Brian and I have three brothers. Fernando is 7 years old and Edwin is 12 and the baby is 1. I have only my mom my dad isn't here. I would like a bike. ... I love you Santa," another letter said, according to the report.
Darlene Reid, a spokeswoman from the Letters to Santa team based in New York City, told FoxNews.com that she has not seen any difference this year as compared to year’s past.
"If you open letters for 10 minutes, one will make you laugh and one will make you cry," Reid said.
She said not all the letters that come into the New York City office are opened because the New York offices see hundreds of thousands of letters. But volunteers can read through some of these cards and fulfill a child’s wish. There is, however, a process in place and at no point does the volunteer learn the child’s identity or address.
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