Inside the Story: Santa's Red Letter
(KUTV) It may be thousands of miles away from the North Pole, but Santa's helpers are very busy in a back office located in small northern Utah town. They are answering thousands of letters from kids and adults from all over the world. They call it "Santa's Red Letter," an online company based in Hyrum that allows parents or anyone to send a letter to a child or loved one right from Old Saint Nick. Some come with Santa's red stamp of approval and others have a black stamp of disapproval.
"Having checked his list twice, Santa Claus reluctantly awards you the 'certificate of naughty,'" read those letters.
So, not only can you send someone a "certificate of nice" but also a "naughty certificate" complete with a lump of coal.
"They're just basically calling you out," said Crystal Stapley, who runs the business with her husband. "You've been naughty this year, you need to step it up your game and get back over to the nice list."
Trish Mercer is the voice of Santa.
"He's in my head, somewhere he's saying things," Mercer explained. "He sounds very big, very deep."
She's the ones who pens the naughty and nice letters that will be mailed to kids or adults.
"You have to be careful," she said. "It's almost a sacred thing taking on the voice of Santa, because there is so much tradition and love and lore with it. We want to make sure that we didn't distract from that, that we added to that."
The idea all came about when one of Stapley's sons asked the question, "Why doesn't Santa ever write back?" From that, Santa's Red Letter was born.
"When they write into Santa Claus they get a letter back," she said.
Customers can choose from a variety of 30 nice letters or nine black letters to send to people.
"It begins with a little bit of a rip," Stapley explained the naughty letters. "Because people need to be humble sometimes, but then it's a way to let them know how they can improve themselves, what they can do."
But once the letter leaves the workshop it's not all over. The letter goes on to the North Pole. That's where it will get the official North Pole stamp and then it will be off to the customer. Now in its fifth season, Santa's letter writing business has gone from hundreds to now thousands of mailings, creating some Christmas cheer far away from Santa's North Pole workshop.
If you want to order a letter from Santa, go to their website. Use the coupon code KUTV10 to get 10% off.
The last mailings go out on December 13th.
