Despite COVID-19, local groups provide opportunities for kids to write, visit Santa

Santa had to get a little more creative finding ways to connect with local kids this holiday season, according to local park district and chamber of commerce officials.

Matt Duffy, executive director for DeKalb Chamber of Commerce, said there were almost 100 kids that came to visit Santa through a window at Byer’s Brewing Company in downtown DeKalb and a microphone and speaker communication system for both sides. He said he thought the event went really well, despite COVID-19 social distancing restrictions.

“It was great to have a chance for visits for Santa, even though it’s not the traditional way,” Duffy said.

Duffy said the chamber also added more mailboxes for letters to Santa and they already started posting videos of Santa reading those letters on social media, with more to come this week. He said he’s unsure how many letters Santa has received through the chamber’s mailboxes, since they are still being tallied, but the chamber is expecting a couple hundred letters total.

Duffy said there typically would be one mailbox on Santa’s house that is usually set up for visits in downtown DeKalb. He said this was the first year the chamber expanded the letters portion of the program and the chamber, along with the City of DeKalb, wanted to adjust everything accordingly so kids are still safe but don’t miss out on the experience this year.

“We’re just trying to have that holiday spirit in downtown DeKalb,” Duffy said. " ... It’s been fun to see how creative not only us but other communities have gotten.”

Duffy said the Saturday, Dec. 12 socially distant Santa visits also included a live version of Elfie, the elf on a shelf character, getting into some hijinks like skating at the downtown skate shop, hiding in stuffed animals or shooting Nerf darts.

“So that was a fun little addition that we had this year, too,” Duffy said.

The United States Postal Service also is continuing the #OperationSanta program, which allows people to read and adopt letters from children asking for presents from Santa. The program went online for 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the last day for volunteers to send the requested gifts is Dec. 19.

Neither DeKalb Postmaster Samantha Krueger nor Sycamore Postmaster John Stensland were able to comment for this story.

Doug Kenney, superintendent for Genoa Park District, said the park district’s Santa letters program is doing better than normal this year. He said the park district has about 20 letters that Santa will write replies to as opposed to the usual 10 or so.

Kenney said he thinks it’s been a bonus for kids to get a letter from Santa when they might be bummed about not going back to school in person as soon as they had hoped. He said he knows that park district staff misses them and hopes to get back to normal programming soon.

“They’re still counting on Santa to make the trip and leave out presents for them,” Kenney said. " ... I think it just gives them extra hope that, once [December] 31st goes and passes by and with a vaccine coming out, things might be getting better.”