Original subtitles

[film clicking] [light music]

[tense music]

[boinging]

♪ Sweet World

- [Kid] Sweet world films.

[kid laughing]

[whimsical music]

- Santa Claus,

- Is,

- The person who gives us presents.

- He gives presents.

- He delivers presents

- At night,

- On Christmas.

- He gives toys to children all around the world.

- Santa Claus gives gifts to the good kids.

- The bad people don't get much presents.

- And the bad kids get coal.

- He lives in the North Pole which is a snowy place.

- He wears lots of fuzzy things so he doesn't freeze.

- He makes presents at the North Pole.

There's a toy factory.

- He has reindeer.

- I think he has eight or nine reindeer.

- That carries him in a sleigh.

- Flying.

- The reindeers pull the sled

and they fly across the air.

- He says

- [Kids] Ho ho ho!

- Ho, ho, ho.

- He flies around house to house.

- They land right on top of the roof.

- And he comes down the chimney.

- He goes down the chimney pretty quietly

so he doesn't wake the family up.

- And he puts the presents under the tree.

- And he eat cookie and he drink milk, that's it.

- He's gonna know what I want

because I'm writing a letter to say

what I want for Christmas.

- [Kid] Dear Santa.

- [Kid] Dear Santa.

- [Kids] Dear Santa.

- I want a Nintendo Switch.

- A doll.

- I would like a barbie doll.

- Pokemon toys.

- A skateboard and a teddy bear.

- Unicorn stocking, unicorn socks.

- A Nerf gun.

- A unicorn snow globe.

- iPad.

- Unicorn shoes.

- I want a GoPro.

- A puppy.

- A black cat.

- A super cool

race car. - Race car.

- A really cool

Hotwheels set. - Legos.

- A Lego spaceship. - A Lego train.

- Kids write letters and then they put them in the mail.

- [Kid] You mail it to Santa.

- [Kid] And the post office, they deliver it to Santa

so Santa knows what we want for Christmas.

[festive holiday music]

♪ Haul out the holly

♪ Put up the tree before my spirit falls again ♪

♪ Fill up the stocking

♪ I may be rushing things but

♪ Deck the halls again now

♪ For we need a little Christmas ♪

♪ Right this very minute

♪ Candles in the window

♪ Carols at the spinet

♪ Yes we need

♪ a little Christmas [train hooting]

♪ Right this very minute

♪ Need a little Christmas

♪ Now

[bells jingling]

[chimes tinkling]

- Today, you guys are gonna get to write a letter to Santa.

Remember if you can think it, you can say it,

you can write it.

And make sure you put your last name.

'Cause there's probably a lot of Brinleys

and there's probably a lot of Elijahs out there

and Vedas, and Damiens.

[kid laughing]

I'll be right with you.

- [Kid] Lawanda Adams.

- [Teacher] No you need to put your name on it.

- Dear Santa ,i would like my family to have

a good Christmas, can you give them that?

- I would like my parents to have Christmas socks

and I would like a Barbie doll.

- And then she put, do your reindeer like carrots?

I wonder what he's gonna say?

- [Kid] He'll say yes.

- Do you guys think that reindeer like carrots?

Give me a thumbs up if you think they do.

I think they do.

So we may not get to read all of them in class.

But Santa will be able to, okay?

We are going to mail them off to Santa.

- [Man] Little postman, how are ya?

- [Postman] Hi, how you doing?

How you doing, Kyle?

- Good, good.

Some of our students wrote some letters and

I was gonna get 'em to you so you can

make sure Santa gets them.

Can you do that for me? - Well we'll do.

We will send those to the North Pole today.

I'm gonna take those letters back

to the office, get them in the mail today

and get them up to the North Pole.

[whimsical music]

Santa gets quite a few letters

and so we need to get them up there

as quick as possible so he has time to answer 'em.

- Okay, this is how Santa get the letters.

- The mailman drives in his truck.

- The mailman drives all the way, all the way

up to where Santa Claus is.

- Only the post office knows where Santa lives.

- I think the mailman takes the airplane.

- [Boy With Glasses] They put the letters

carefully in the plane.

- They ride the plane all the way to Santa.

[wind lightly blowing]

[light music]

- Elves!

- I'm an elf working at the North Pole.

I'm processing letters that kids write in to Santa.

If you'll have the address at the top right.

That makes my job easier.

- [Woman] If there is an address.

- If there is an address, yeah.

- Santa has 20 elves.

- Santa probably has more than a hundred elves, I think.

- He has one thousand.

- One thousand.

- A million.

- Santa's the boss of the elves.

- He's a nice boss.

And he makes sure that everything's done perfect and right.

And that we'd make sure all the children

are taken care of.

So we open letters, and that's what we do.

We try and get them all answered by Christmas.

- And then Santa does nothing.

He just leaves, and when someone calls him

then he picks up the phone.

That's all he ever does.

- [Greg] It's interesting that kids from different states

like different kinds of toys.

For instance, in New York, much more into electronics

than a lot of the country.

And you go to California, and you guessed it,

a lot more surfboards are being asked for.

Down in the south and in the north,

everywhere is a little bit different.

And most of the kids are just very, very polite

in the way they ask Santa for their gifts.

- [Kids] Please, please, please.

Thank you, thank you!

- [Greg] It does get very busy.

Then the closer we get to Christmas,

- Thank you.

- [Greg] The busier it gets.

The more letters there are, the more children there are,

the harder it was to answer all the letters.

So a few years ago, they decided to start digitizing.

We put them all in the computer

where we can bring up every single child's letter,

and we go through it and we categorize it.

What kind of gift does this child want,

do they want a bike, do they want a puppy?

What are they asking for?

We make sure every child's name is put into the computer

and then we make sure it gets taken care of.

- Santa loves it.

It makes his job easier.

- Sometimes he used to stay up really late at night.

And it's getting smoother so he can get

a little bit of a rest before he takes off

for Christmas night.

We're working hard, Santa.

We're gonna do everything possible

and we're keeping up with you.

It's hard, you're the hardest worker, Santa,

but we're keeping up with you.

[machine whizzing]

♪ There's a silent night

♪ A holy night

♪ Oh

[crowd applauding]

- Thank you guys very much.

Thank you all for being here.

We have elves over there, where the letters are.

[light jazzy music]

This year, the Operation Santa program is online.

But you can still adopt them in person.

Just Chicago and New York are the only two places

that you can still adopt hardcopy letters as well.

- I invite you to come out at any time

and read the letters and see what touches your heart.

Okay, thank you. - Merry Christmas.

- Merry Christmas to you as well.

Thank you so much. - Good job.

- Girl, you doing a good job. - Thank you.

I was so happy.

You thought I had won a million dollars.

I was like, well what do I do

and when do I start?

So he explained the program to me

and told me what I needed to do.

And he sort of left it to me

to do the flare of whatever I wanted to do.

And I just decided to bring it to life.

- [Man] When will you start dressing for the holidays?

[Janice laughing]

- [Janice] About the 23rd.

- I'll take some of these.

I'll keep them separate from the two children.

- I think I got my three families this year.

- Is he asking for a kitten?

I'll get you a kitten.

- Once people start reading, they can't hardly stop.

And we actually put tissue on the table

because they sit there and they cry.

- This is a little girl, five years old.

My name is Kelly, I have been on my best behavior all year.

I will try to keep my wishlist short.

Winter leggings, so she wants tights.

- We're from Lilydale Missionary Baptist Church.

And we're here today to adopt a family.

These letters are, oh my god,

I wanna pick 'em all.

- I say the same thing every year.

I wish I could take 'em all.

We've been doing this now about 16 years.

We don't have a lot of money

but what we do have, we want it to go to someone

who really needs it.

- One little boy asked for a bible

so that's right up our alley.

So of course we wanna buy some bibles and pass them out.

- Yay, we got three!

- [Attendant] You got three letters.

- I work at a real estate company.

This is our eighth year doing it.

The first year, I sent out an email company wide

and I said hey, the post office runs this program.

I'm gonna go down there and pick up

a couple letters for myself.

Would anybody like to participate?

So we had about 20 people get involved that year.

We got gifts for 35 kids.

- Every year they would get larger and larger and larger.

And I said we're gonna let our boss know about you.

And so he sent them a thank you letter.

- This year I've got the master list here.

You know, we're up to 64 people at my company now

and 114 kids are going to get their hopes,

dreams and wishes fulfilled

so they can celebrate the magic of a holidays.

[light music]

- It's a family of eight

and there's five kids.

Her, her grandma and five children.

- Does it give ages in there?

- No.

Wait! - Hey look, there's Janice!

- How are you?

- How are you? - Good.

- I thought you were retiring this year.

I said to Matt, - No.

Really? - and he's like

I'm reaching out to Janice now and I'm like,

are you sure? - No,

I'll let you know - I think she's retiring.

- when this elf goes to the North Pole for permanent.

- Well here's another one and this has,

- Throw it at me.

- [Matt] Five kids.

- They are a special group.

We have families sometimes, six, seven, eight,

up to 10.

And a lot of times they get left.

They will choose those letters and help those families.

We spend hours just letting them do their thing.

- They write a 37 year old mother of six.

- [Matt] Let's take this two from Janice.

- [Ashley] Yeah I think that's what we take.

- [Jen] Yes.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

- The first year that we did it

was the first year that I met you.

And you introduced me to this program.

I didn't even know it existed.

And we did a family and I can remember vividly

it was a letter written by an 11 year old kid

who asked for nothing for himself

which is, I've had 11 year olds, like,

they're known to be selfish.

Asked for nothing for himself,

talked about how loving and awesome

his single mother was, and she did the best that she could

and we're like all right, great.

And fast forward to today, we do,

we probably have 150 to 200 different donors every year.

We're just sort of like the vessel

that holds it all together.

We're Santa's helpers.

- We're Santa's elves, we help.

[light music]

- I'm a ornamental iron worker.

I work for a window installation company.

[welder zapping]

I went through the free apprenticeship program,

it's only for women,

and they help women get into the trades.

I waited to get a phone call from local 580,

had an interview, took a test,

and I've been doing this for five years.

Sure.

- Okay. - Okay.

Sounds good, thank you.

One of our senior instructors, Gene Matthews,

he started up with Operation Santa 11 years ago.

- I kind of like this one

'cause at least she's honest

about she's not doing well in school but she's trying.

- So this is yes, [speaks in foreign language] Maria, Maria.

- We started doing it on a job,

15, 20 guys on a job.

We've been dying to get a few letters.

Had some big tough guy ironworkers crying

when they were reading the letters.

And it just started to snowball.

- I joined him five years ago and

I wait for it all year, it's like my baby.

- [Gene] And I defy anybody to read them letters

and not want to adopt them.

- So just, you could just go through them,

see if there's any of these that you want.

- [Gissel] Santa sends a special elf called Gail.

- Lamborghini. [laughing]

- A mansion.

- And a mansion.

- I'll take the first one if you want.

- I'll take the socks.

- Oh, my.

- My name is Gail Branham,

and I am the Chief Elf for Operation Santa

here in New York.

Mhmm.

- [Gissel] Gail reaches out to all of us.

Any New Yorker or anyone just to help out.

- We're in close communication with Santa.

We're not, we don't really divulge too much information

as to, you know, our conversations with him

but he knows that we're out here

and we're doing his work.

And we're making things easier for him.

And tilt that right.

- There you go.

- We good, we good?

- [Gail] I think it's okay!

- You get to read the letters, they're so heartfelt.

Some children are unfortunate.

And then you got some children that are fortunate

but they still wanna get gifts too,

which is okay.

We all love gifts.

One kid asks for just food for Christmas.

Another kid asks for a bed.

But I've seen bikes come through here,

I've seen a bed come here.

I've seen refrigerators, I've seen it all.

Just tons and tons and it makes the kids happy.

They just smile and smile and smile.

- We got 53 letters in total here.

- How's it coming on over here?

Good?

[kids chattering]

I'll take that, thank you.

Okay, perfect.

Today, we're in a East Harlem

low income housing project.

This is our fourth year of doing this.

And every child is able to write letters to Santa

and we make sure that they're fulfilled.

Wow, that's coming together pretty well.

I like it.

Sometimes it can be a little tougher

for Santa to get to certain locations

or make sure that they get their presents.

And so we do work hand in hand.

I think of it as Santa's special forces,

that we make sure that these kids

are gonna get their Christmas presents.

Santa does know that,

I'm quite familiar with the things that he does.

[light music]

When I was 10 or 11 years old,

I wrote a Dear Santa letter.

I was a bit disillusioned child at the time.

We were going through some pretty rough times.

My mom who was a newly single mom

admirably was trying her best to make a life for us.

We were struggling to just keep afloat

and have food in the house,

and we didn't have anything.

Just a mattress on the floor, had no TV.

I wrote, I would like either a radio,

because we had nothing that made any sound

so it'd be nice to have some sort of sound

from the outside world,

or an alarm clock so that my mom

wouldn't have to wake me up.

In the morning, I can go to school,

and do it on my own and not have to burden her with that.

The time came where I opened up the present

and it was an alarm clock radio.

It's an alarm clock but it's also a radio.

It was everything that I didn't even know

I wanted and needed and there it was.

[light music]

People don't necessarily remember what you say to them.

They'll remember how you made them feel.

And now we make sure there'll be all types

of Christmas cheer

and we're gonna help facilitate that.

- Mmm!

[bright music]

♪ I want a hippopotamus for Christmas ♪

♪ Only a hippopotamus will do

♪ Don't want a doll

♪ No dinky Tinkertoy

♪ I want a hippopotamus to play with and enjoy ♪

♪ I want a hippopotamus for Christmas ♪

♪ I don't think Santa Claus will mind, do you ♪

♪ No crocodiles or rhinoceroseses ♪

♪ I only like hippopotamuseses

♪ And hippopotamuses like me too ♪

[light music]

- [Woman] Hold on, let's see what's in here

so everybody can get their special ornament.

- [Young Woman] Make sure you don't clump them together.

[chattering over each other]

- Dear Santa, hello.

I'm writing you to tell you thank you.

Thank you for everything you have given me

for the past 12 years.

- [Woman] There you go, perfect, you're welcome.

- Have you read my sister Maya's letter?

She just loves animals so much.

I was wondering if me and her

could get a puppy for Christmas.

You don't have to get me anything else

and I don't care what kind of dog, any works.

I promise I will take great care of it

and give it so much love.

That's all I want.

You could even leave my stocking empty.

I don't care.

Well thanks so much for reading this letter.

You're an awesome person/spirit/fairy/cow.

Natalie.

[boy screaming]

The thing I love most about Christmas

is like being able to see my siblings

opening up their gifts

and just seeing their surprised faces.

I just love seeing them happy.

[bells jingling]

- Dear Santa, this is what I want for Christmas.

10 Dutch bunnies, five boys, five girls.

Enough money to take care of Dutch Bunnies.

A useful taking care of Dutch Bunnies guide.

Food for Dutch Bunnies and happiness for all.

From Christopher.

P.S. I will send you gifts.

You deserve them.

I wrote about Dutch Bunnies 'cause I love rabbits a lot.

They just fill my heart up with joy.

[light music]

One time I went to Pratt's Pets to look at them.

And I found this really cute white one.

I picked it up and it didn't want me to put it down.

It would fight whenever I tried to put it down.

I felt sad for the guy.

I felt really bad.

- I'm not buying any more property.

I'm a borrow.

- He's always loved animals

and he just wants to be a vet when he gets older.

He just loves them.

Specially like, the rabbits.

- Is it good?

- Yes, it's good.

- Okay, let me read it then.

- But I think Santa wants people to be good.

He loves kids.

I was thinking about writing other stuff

but I just decided just to write about the rabbits.

[light piano music]

[bells jingling]

- Dear Santa, my name is Bryan and I am 12 years old.

This Christmas I would really like a limo

to give me and my family a ride around the city.

I've also never been in one.

My mother would pay for it but she doesn't have the money

and my dad isn't around, so I'm asking your for it

and I will really appreciate it.

[tires screeching]

I've seen a lot of like movies and shows

about like people riding limousines

and so I want to see how it felt.

It's like kind of private

and it's like nobody experiences that every day.

- That's a dream that he had

because he told me "Mommy, sometimes I see

"in movies and everything and I see

"so many kids in limousines

"and I want to be in a limousine with you and the family."

I said, "Oh Bryan, that's very expensive.

"I don't have money for that."

He said "Well, I'm going to write a letter to Santa."

And I said, "Okay, do it, but I don't know."

- I know a lot of kids write letters to Santa

about what they want this year.

So I wrote several to see if he like notices.

'Cause I know there's a lot of kids

and he has to like take his time for them too, so

if he couldn't do that, I wouldn't have been mad

but I would really appreciate it if he could.

I follow my directions and stuff, like listen to my mom.

I respect everybody.

I think I've been on the nice list.

- Bryan is very good in school.

I say to my son "Always have your face up, don't go down.

"Try to be your best."

Will Santa get that for Bryan?

Well I don't know.

But I continue believe.

[bells jingling]

- Dear Santa, this is Victoria.

I told mommy to help me write to you

because I am still learning to write.

We had to move to Chico now

because the fire burned our house.

[birds chirping]

- Dear Santa, we moved again.

My biggest Christmas wish is to live back in paradise.

[somber music]

[siren blaring]

- [Dispatcher] All units, be advised.

The town of Paradise is under mandatory evacuation.

The town of Paradise is under mandatory evacuation.

[fire crackling]

[light piano music]

- [Mom] There's white in here.

Does anybody want white for their cookies?

- Yes.

Can you tell me when we're done?

- You guys can just put them on here

when you guys are done.

We knew that our home was gone

right away, and most of our friends lost their homes.

- I'm very grateful for my kids to have a home

and a place to stay, and for our lives.

It could have been to where we didn't have

any more Christmases, you know?

I am being nice and good for you, Santa

because I love you.

- I would like a hoverboard or a skateboard.

Could you please bring gifts for my brothers

and sisters too?

- I miss home.

I want my bed and books to read with my mommy.

I will make cookies and milk.

They are just like the ones at Paradise.

Thank you for my presents.

Love, Victoria.

- I'm sure we will love anything you bring us.

Love, Lorelai.

[funky holiday music]

- [Crowd] Whoah!

- You want some new socks, or, yeah?

Okay.

- What's up there?

Oh what is it?

You can't get that.

[baby shouting]

You can't get that.

Decided to write a letter to Santa,

just to do something with my kids before I went home.

I asked for just household stuff and like clothes.

My couch is a little messed up but

I'm living so I can't complain.

I still have a roof over my head.

[crowd chattering]

- The Christmas season honestly is a little rough.

I'm kind of struggling, trying to make a way,

doing the best I can.

- Where's your pencil?

You gotta pull the chair up.

Did he get one?

- I'm seven months pregnant.

He's been my little blessing

but he's definitely a surprise, like,

we have to get cribs and car seats and clothes for him so

it's rough 'cause I had to stop working.

- [Taylor] I'm just looking for like some household things

like I need help with like mattress for my kids.

- [Woman] Now put it in your envelope.

- [Taylor] It would mean so much for me

for my kids to wake up and have a wonderful Christmas.

- And then you pulled it over and it'll get stuck.

You wanna lick it?

- You did a great job.

- I'm getting ready to cry now just thinking about it,

like it will be a blessing,

it will be a really big blessing.

A really big blessing.

- Yeah lick it till it sticks.

There you go.

Push it down.

Yeah, high five! - Thank you, Merry Christmas.

♪ Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus ♪

♪ right down Santa Claus Lane

- I met Santa Claus once.

- I met Santa in the mall.

- I saw Santa at CVS.

We were just in this aisle, just looking for hair stuff.

And he just like walked towards us and I'm like.

- I was like shaking.

- [Mom] Can you smile for Mom so I can take a picture

of you with Santa?

- Some Santas aren't the real Santa

when people take pictures of them.

They're not the real Santa,

just someone dressed up.

- [Mom] Tell Santa what you want for Christmas.

- The Santas that we see at the mall are helpers

because there's only one real Santa.

- The other ones might be volunteering for him

while he's really busy.

- Kids can tell the fake Santa what they want for Christmas

and then he'll report it to the real Santa.

- But the little kids don't know that it's not actual Santa.

- Babies don't know.

- There's some Santas that we see that are white

and this one time I was in first grade,

that Santa, he was black.

- Merry Christmas!

- [Kid] It's really good too,

because it can be different colors of Santa.

- I don't know if he's real or fake.

- And they can tell which one's fake

because of their shoes.

The fake ones look like regular shoes.

- My cousin Morgan, she's seen Santa before

in real life because he showed her his ID.

I'm just hoping I could see that one too.

[giggling]

[bells jingling]

[light music]

- [Instructor] Okay, boys and girls.

Good afternoon, how's everybody today?

- [Kids] Good.

- We are about to take a look at our candidates this year

for letter selection for Operation Pay It Forward.

So we're gonna look over a few letters

and we're going to decide which ones will be appropriate

for us to adopt.

At PS253, one of the clubs is a Student Government Club.

And one of our most successful programs

is a Pay It Forward program that we do at Christmas time.

- Dear Santa, hi.

My name is Semaj and I am 11 years old.

- [Ms. Gellman] You know, it's very busy

up in the North Pole this time of year.

So our school community is very happy

to act as elves for Santa.

He has my cell phone number and he texted us

and we got right to work.

- Dear Santa, what I would like for Christmas

is a red X-box, one controller please.

- [Ms. Gellman] So this looks like somebody

that really would like electronics.

So what do you think about that?

- I think no, because if we can't afford it,

then we shouldn't buy it for them, 'cause,

- It's too expensive. - Yeah.

- It's too expensive.

We have to look for more doable things

because, like we say,

it's not what we have that matters.

It's what we do with what we have, right?

Our school, we're very close to the beach.

[waves crashing]

A few years ago, when Hurricane Sandy hit,

our community lost a lot.

Many of the students, where they lived,

so their apartments were flooded out.

They all had a rough time.

Many people brought many donations,

clothes, mattresses, water.

Anything you could imagine.

So this is one way of kind of paying it forward.

We were helped, and now we're helping other people.

- Dear Santa, my name is Emma.

I am six years old and I'm in first grade.

I like to read and draw.

- [Ms. Gellman] What can we do for her

for reading and drawing?

I mean, we're a school.

- Colorful pencils and paper?

- [Ms. Gellman] Excellent, so is everybody

liking this letter so far?

- [Kids] Yes.

- Okay, let's continue from here, sweety.

Where it says Santa.

- Santa, I would like to send son present

to my mom.

She work really hard, and my brother, he is 14 years old,

is very good boy.

- Good, okay let's stop right there.

What is she doing?

Is she just asking for herself?

- [Kids] No.

- No, what is she doing, Amna?

- [Amna] She's showing respect?

- [Ms. Gellman] For who?

- Her mom and brother?

- Her family. - Yeah she's showing respect

for her family.

I think she really is somebody

that we might wanna help, but it's student choice.

You guys decide, what do you think?

- [Kids] Yes!

- [Ms. Gellman] Yes, she's a yes?

- Yes.

- I'm so excited.

I'm confirming.

And we're adopted.

[chill music]

[bells jingling]

- My favorite time of the year is Christmas.

I love the excitement of all the extra parcels

and all the extra mail.

And it drives everybody else crazy

and they're like all stressed out

and I love it.

Oh my god, that one is funny.

- Yay!

- Look at this.

- That's fantastic.

- A dragon with

a rainbow popsicle. - No, look at this.

- This is fantastic.

- Googly eyes.

- I am the head elf in Chico.

This is my ninth year doing it.

Santa needs elves because this is a really big world

and he can't possibly do it all by 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.

- Okay, she wants a rainbow light to hold in her hand,

a king octopus, a dragon that talks, flies,

is a girl warrior, and is rainbow

and has Wonder Woman clothes.

[everyone chuckling]

- [Jamie] I love the idea of toys.

Toys bring everybody such joy.

You know, little kids love toys.

Well, believe it or not, adults love toys too.

I can be an adult all day long if I want to.

But most of the time I don't want to.

- Answer back what you want for Christmas, Brianna.

[chuckling] I love kids.

So good.

- Dear Santa, you know Cooper really wants

a Lego train, right?

So I was thinking,

- Santa sent me a big red mailbox years ago

and we put all the letters into that mailbox

so that we don't lose any.

At that point, I get a hold of Santa,

either by text or Facebook.

We go over all the letters,

we decide who's been naughty, who's been nice.

And then there we decide what they're gonna get

off their list,

and we go from there.

- All right, dear Santa, this is Victoria.

I told mommy to help me write to you

because I'm still learning to write.

We had to move to Chico now

because the fire burned our house.

I missed home.

We had to move a lot.

I want my bed and books to read with my mommy.

Take a breath.

- You know.

- [Woman] It's all right.

- She's supporting the family right now making tamales.

And I mean, she has five kids.

And it's just, I mean,

I don't know, it's just,

it's just sad when it happens, but,

everything makes me sad. [laughing]

- [Woman] That's why we have Mookie.

- That's why I have my support monkey. [laughing]

- [Woman] How about a hug?

Here you go.

[somber piano music]

- With the fire last year,

we had about 40,000 people overnight

that moved into Chico.

We're still feeling the aftermath of it this year.

I've always collected toys and I love toys.

And because I didn't really think our house was gonna burn,

I just thought we were leaving,

I left all of my toys.

And it just... [sobbing]

I mean, I left my whole house.

This is the first toy that I bought after the fire.

It just means a lot to me now.

[tractor beeping]

The house was long ways.

And then this was all,

you can see it used to be a retaining wall.

We plan to rebuild our house and start over.

With the Santa Project this year,

I just want to give a little extra attention

to those that I know are from Paradise.

I mean, I've been there, I know.

I just feel like it's my duty.

[jazzy music]

[chimes tinkling]

- It can get stressful.

- It's a lot of moving parts. [laughing]

You have a lot of people who are just

hearing about the program, and they want to come in

and get letters.

And then we have a lot of people who are

coming back with their packages.

Lots and lots of packages.

We feel the pressure.

[elevator dinging]

I love the stress.

But yet, nobody better get in my way

because it's gotta be done.

[cars honking]

[bells jingling]

[lightly excited music]

- Saturday morning is our Christmas event

and I'm still 25 letters off minimally.

So today I'm gonna be going store to store,

trying to fill in the gap that we have

for the amount of presents.

And even wrapping paper,

and any other kind of donations that we can get.

Thanks, thanks you, appreciate it, thank you.

All my cash is into this.

I've got nothing left.

All my networks are basically tapped at this point.

I'm here to try to get actual stuff

and fill this bag.

I've got bags within this bag.

So I can carry a bag, I got bags, so

you know, we're planning for success.

We gotta try.

It's down to the wire.

The pressure is, there's just these little

puppy dog eyed kids just looking at us

and being like, you know,

you didn't get me a present?

[bells jingling]

- [Jen] And if you finish this little boy,

then you come back to me,

and then we'll do,

we'll do another person, okay?

- Okay.

- All right, high five.

Wait, wait, wait, no, let's do go team.

Ready, one two three!

Go team!

[light excited music]

- Hey, which way is toys?

Oh, it's right there!

Any baby toys or board books?

- I love it.

Let's do it, let's look at the prices.

- Undies!

I found undies, guys!

- She really needs to be warm.

- So we should get her a blanket.

- Okay, blankie.

- Small blankets, I saw them,

over there.

- After the families call us,

I take notes, I write down their name,

everything about them.

I get a lot of information.

And I like my donors to know the story.

We have to do a separate transaction for each person.

So this is Jeremiah, he has more stuff.

So everything for Jeremiah will go in a bag

or however many bags it takes.

And then we don't open the bag.

This is the system.

Hup two three four, here we go, out the door.

[light music]

This is number three.

So one, two, three.

Number three, this is Autumn.

Who is this?

Autumn and Jeremiah's.

[chill music]

- [Ashley] Come right in, yeah.

Just put it right here, right in front of you.

Amazon just piles, and piles up.

- Candy?

- [Delivery Guy] Thank you very much.

Thank you.

- [Jen] Thank you.

- [Matt] I'm Jewish.

Like, I didn't have any of this as a kid.

This is all brazen to me.

- We have two adults coming at two o'clock.

It looks like the bulk of people

are coming at three or four.

[people chattering]

- [Matt] Donors come drop off and they'll stay for an hour

and wrap some gifts to help us out.

[guests chattering]

We've talked for years, like let's go get a warehouse

but we do this out of our house

because we do it when my kids go to bed,

we do it all day long.

It can't be done except in our house

'cause we can manage both lives at the same time.

It's organized chaos, I think.

- [Jen] It's organized chaos, it really is.

- Everybody take a basket of supplies.

You're gonna need scissors.

Here, why don't you take that, honey?

We have our little stickers.

We have glue sticks.

And over here you can cut these out

and color them in and paste them

on a construction paper.

Let's go.

Paper.

Paper.

Every class adopted a child from a letter

that was sent to Santa.

And they spent the last two weeks preparing

to deliver presents to that child for Santa.

- It doesn't matter how many things you wrap.

We just have to get it done.

- [Kids] Yeah, yeah yeah.

- Get it done!

- We nailed it, yeah!

- Most children don't feel like they have the power

to make somebody's dreams come true like that.

So they get very excited, they bring in their presents.

They bought them wrapping paper,

you bring in whatever you can.

I think our students really develop some empathy,

civic pride, and just know a real good feeling

to be Santa and make somebody's dreams come true.

- In Miss Sevage's class,

they are wrapping presents for Simone.

She's a fifth grade girl, and

they're wrapping presents such as clothes,

sweaters, socks, and toys.

It makes me feel really happy for this girl.

- We chose this family because we really care for them

and we felt sad that their mom passed away.

- [Teacher] Right here is good.

That's good, that's good.

That's good.

- We have so many gifts because they're giving presents

for her aunt, for her brother and sister

and the little 10 month old baby.

- Even if you don't particularly celebrate

Christmas or Hannukkah

or Diwali or Kwanza,

we still would like to feel that Santa is in your heart

because that's truly what it is.

And the good feeling of giving

and being peaceful and happy with each other's

what we're trying to promote.

- I think they're really gonna love them.

- I'm so excited.

[calm and gentle music]

- All right, at this time,

we would like to introduce to you

Damion Digrazia, please give him a big round of applause.

[crowd applauding]

- Thank you so much everyone for coming out tonight.

You know, a Christmas gift can be impactful.

You know, like it has for me, once upon a time

I was an Operation Santa Claus kid myself,

came from an underprivileged background,

where I wrote out a little letter

to get a alarm clock or a radio.

And I got an alarm clock radio

and it was the best thing ever.

And it stuck with me.

Going forward, we're at least 25 letters off.

And we're trying to finish all those letters

because the kids are gonna come, try to get their gifts.

And either they're gonna get their gifts or they're not.

So you know, if anybody wants to donate later

and any way you guys wanna get involved,

I really appreciate everything

that you guys are doing, it's amazing.

The mission continues, thanks, everybody.

[crowd applauding]

[gentle music]

What we get here is just mission critical period.

You know, I don't know if we're gonna be able

to come up with enough.

- Reading all the letters around here,

it makes me just wanna go out and actually buy everything

that's on the list.

That's all this is about, is kids.

- [Damion] But we might be witness

to a Christmas miracle tonight

is what I've been feeling.

[chill music]

- It's the holidays.

It's Christmas, it's Hannukkah, it's whatever you celebrate.

Here in New York, if you're not like pushing tourists

out of the way, or getting angry

at traffic or whatnot,

everyone's in that same mindset of

we are here together, we are one.

Let's just have this moment of unity and giving.

I've been doing this for 15 to 18 years at least now.

[camera clicking]

This year, I wasn't actually going to do it.

I needed a break, to be honest.

And then this letter fell into my lap

and I said well, here we go again.

There's no not doing it this year

because of this letter.

[serene music]

It says "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.

At its essence, the kid is only asking for love

for Christmas, from Santa and God.

So what's happening in the background for this kid?

That's like, wow.

How can you not grab this letter

and send him all the love?

So upon receiving this, I sent it

to my gay brothers and sisters.

I said hey, this is what I'm doing.

Read the letter, I think we need to mobilize.

And so immediately, everyone's like, yes, yes, yes,

yes, yes, yes.

We're gathering all these kids books on acceptance

and what it's like to be different, and,

I know there's a book coming my way

about LGBT history for kids.

And someone just sent me a rainbow Santa hat

just to be like, you know what,

even in the North Pole, everybody's different, right?

I mean Rudolph was different and ostracized

until he was the hero for being different.

[bells jingling]

[lightly tense holiday music]

- Try to see if you could fold it in a way

that it gives it like reinforcement

and then you're gonna wrap this whole thing in brown.

- To protect the branding. - Yes.

Did you get all the price tags off of this?

My dear nana, thank you for all the love and care

you give me and Dookie.

- Dookie!

- We love you so much.

- Yup, Dominic.

- [Man] That's 25P, right?

- Today we are wrapping up presents for 62 letters

and 171 people and one cat Dookie.

- Jonathan! - Yeah?

- [Gissel] That needs to go to-

- Yeah, I got it.

- Jonathan, that needs to be taped down.

Jonathan, can you run this?

Jonathan!

- Yeah?

[light jazzy music]

- You know, you lose everything sometimes in a divorce.

And when I joined 580 as an apprentice,

my daughter was living down south

and I was up here starting to get on my feet financially.

And you know, I wasn't able to provide

not even a home for her at that time,

let alone like buying gifts.

If I was able to receive like a box,

like boxes that we give out,

I would just cry.

I know I'll be just crying, crying, crying.

Being able to deliver these packages,

making sure that they're packaged correctly to be shipped

to make it to their destination

is something very important to me.

And I send them with love, lots of love.

Like a little piece of Gigi goes with you. [chuckling]

- [Woman] Santa rules!

[crowd cheering]

- Nina's gonna do the weighing,

and then you're gonna enter the postage

on the computer and then print out the postage sticker.

- Remember what Gail said, every third one free.

- [Gissel] Santa and all his little elves

are gonna be happy.

And then all our apprentices were happy

just to know like they did a good thing.

- [Gail] Thank you so much.

- No, thank you.

Thank you so much.

- Say Operation Santa!

- [Everyone] Operation Santa!

- Goodbye, Santa Claus.

- [Ms. Gellman] Okay you ready?

- [Kid] Yup.

- One at a time, let's go.

One step at a time, be very careful.

Here, start passing it down.

[kids chattering]

Come back, good job.

Pass it to me.

[kids chattering]

How's everybody doing, okay?

How you doing, Alshie, you all right?

[kids chattering]

Boys and girls, we are now in Manhattan

as you can see by all the tall buildings.

[kids chattering]

- [Kid] Look at that building right there!

[cars honking]

- Let's go, let's go, go that way.

All eyes on me.

Boys and girls, Miss Gail

would like to say something to you.

- Welcome.

I'm the Chief Elf here at Operation Santa in New York.

So I'm really pleased that you could be here.

We have been working for 107 years

to help bring Christmas to people.

And you have all been working for the past three years

on this program, this is amazing.

You're so generous, you're kind,

and you're looking for ways to make a difference

in people's lives.

Yes?

- How many elves are there in total?

Like that work in this post office?

- Right now we have about 15 elves working here.

But we have the whole Postal Service throughout the country

working on Operation Santa.

It's a big deal.

Thank you so much for participating in this program,

it's amazing, right?

- [Kids] Yes!

[kids applauding]

[light music]

- Samaji goes over there.

Nancy's son right here, yeah.

- I always wanted the experience of helping others

so I feel happy.

- It feels nice to like

get to know other people's culture and

like be a part of it.

- [Woman] One, two, three, smile!

- All this day long, I was excited and happy.

- One, two, three, smile!

Look how beautiful!

♪ You better watch out, you better not cry ♪

♪ You better not pout I'm telling you why ♪

♪ Santa Claus is coming to town ♪

- Santa only get the good people presents.

- He has elves to watch us

so he knows if we've been bad or not.

They go back to Santa and tell him.

And if he sees you again,

he's just gonna keep on telling.

- Some people trap Santa.

- And then they take his presents and be naughty.

- I'm taking his sled.

- [Kid] I've seen somebody do that in a commercial.

- [Kid] People be naughty, he give them coal.

- I've been good.

I think I'm gonna get presents.

♪ Santa Claus is coming to town ♪

[light music]

- Good girl.

This year, my wife and I said

we would each adopt one letter.

That didn't happen.

We adopted more than that. [laughing]

All in all, we adopted five letters.

Leave it.

Good girl. - Leave it.

Come on, come on.

- I was particularly drawn to one letter

because he wants 10 bunnies.

10 bunnies, and it was just so funny.

The other letter, this little girl,

all she had asked for was for her family

to get a puppy.

Santa reached out to us

because Santa knew that we were involved

in animal rescue community and are huge animal lovers.

The fact that we can get a rescue bunny

and a rescue puppy,

being able to tie it back to our own values

meant a lot to us.

Good girl.

We're so honored that Santa asked us

to help deliver both of these letters.

[bright music]

- Wait, where did I hit you?

- [Dad] Your last one was Foxtrot two.

- That too, it's a person.

- Oh, it's a person holding the egg.

[doorbell ringing]

- [Mom] What is that?

- [Natalie] The bell.

- Oh, the bell?

- Yeah.

- Hey guys, there's somebody here

that wanted to meet you.

[kids gasping]

- Oh, it's a puppy!

- Do you guys wanna hold her?

- [Kids] Yeah!

- Yeah? - Oh my god!

- Here you go.

- [Dad] Wanna put her on a blanket?

- [Natalie] Let's put her on the blanket!

Oh my god!

She's so cute!

I'll just pet her. - Hey guys.

Why is there a puppy here, you think?

- I don't know. - I don't know.

- Santa Claus sent him here

and that's our new puppy.

- [gasping] Really?

[gasping] Oh my god!

Wait, really?

- [Dad] Absolutely.

[kids giggling]

- Oh my god!

Really?

- [Dad] Whose letter was it that was wrote?

I forgot.

- Mine.

- Santa sent somebody who sent the puppy.

They're right here.

- [Kids] Thank you.

- You're welcome.

- You're welcome. - Oh my gosh,

I love her!

- [Maya] We always wanted a dog!

- You always wanted a dog?

- [Maya] But then our mom said no, so.

[everybody laughing]

She's so tiny!

She's just the cutest girl!

[everybody giggling]

- [Kid] Is it a girl or a boy?

- It's a girl. - It's a boy.

- It's a girl.

- No, it's a girl.

- It's a girl 'cause it has a cute collar.

- She is so cute. - She has a cute collar

so it's a girl. - Wait.

- [Kid] She's cute!

- I was not aware that Santa answered

puppy letters very often. [laughing]

So it was a very big surprise, yes.

- Shocked, I think is the best way to phrase.

It was amazing to have something I never thought

was even a possibility come to life for us.

And for our children to get to experience this,

it is tremendous.

- Natalie!

We got a puppy!

Yes we do! - Oh my god!

- [Kid] Yeah, too awesome!

[light blues music]

[phone ringing]

- [Man] Hello?

- Hi, is this Frank?

- [Frank] Yes, it is.

- This is Kelsey.

I was the one who adopted the bunny letter.

- [Frank] Oh, okay great.

You're from Michigan?

- I am.

- [Frank] Thank you for doing that.

I really appreciate that. - Absolutely.

Thank you for delivering.

- [Frank] Ha, no problem.

I'm on the way over there.

- How is the bunny?

- [Frank] Oh, he's great.

He's really good, beautiful.

[bells jingling]

- Nine.

One, two, three, four, five, six,

seven, eight, nine.

I want the officer job.

- We'll see about that.

[doorbell ringing]

[gentle music]

- [Kid] Choose your bit,

choose your husband or wife.

Backseat.

- Wait.

[gasping]

- It's a little present from Santa.

A little rabbit?

- Oh my god.

- Are you the one that's been wanting the rabbit?

This beauty's name is Kringle.

He's really really good. - That's amazing.

- It is amazing, yeah.

He called and said someone needed a rabbit.

- But you asked for,

- Did you ask

for a rabbit? - That's right.

- You want to sit and I'll put him on your lap?

How's that?

So let me put him on your lap, okay.

Just kind of hold him there real tight.

Like that and then rub his little head.

Well that's Kringle.

Say hi, and just start to

introduce him to everybody.

- [Jonah] I was not expecting that.

[Frank chuckling]

- [Frank] What do you think?

Should I tell Santa you like him?

- I love him.

[Frank chuckling]

I feel really happy.

- [Dad] This season has always for me been about

like the innocence.

And it's unbelievable

when you actually get to see it firsthand.

[cart clacking]

- We're gonna deliver five, or maybe six.

Santa still shows up, yup.

Let's see what we got here.

Here it is.

[dog barking]

[knocking]

Good morning, are you Adam?

Hi, how are you?

- Good.

- Hi, is Zoe here?

[paper ripping]

[kid gasping]

- I love it!

- Do you need help?

- No, I got it.

- Bubble wrap!

- [Mom] Bubble wrap, yeah!

- Yes!

I love 'em.

[popping] - Oh!

[bubble wrap popping]

- I'm so happy you wrote to me.

We love getting letters at the North Pole.

- Elves around the country were able to deliver cheer

by adopting these letters.

- Have a merry Christmas, love Santa.

- [Dad] That's what you asked for!

- That's what you were asking for!

Well you wrote to Santa and he wrote back.

- Okay, go play with your toy, baby.

- Bye bye, Merry Christmas!

[gentle music]

[light jazzy music]

[bells jingling]

[chimes tinkling]

- Seven.

Whee!

We're getting ready to hand out

all the presents to each route,

and that carrier will deliver

the parcels for Santa today.

I believe there's 137.

Are you okay with that?

Okay, I just need to make sure all the parcels are fine

before I leave.

35.

It's complete chaotic,

and it's like the worse it gets, the better it gets.

Okay, watch the wrapping paper.

Last night, I got a hold of Santa

and let him know about the last 17 letters

that had just come in.

So I had to ship them all off to him.

He had to look them over and check out the kids,

and make sure who was naughty and who was nice.

And luckily the 17 I got were on the nice list.

Mookie's like the little elf,

so Mookie's job is to look cute

and make little kids smile and adults smile too. [chuckling]

Open, open, open, open.

I have a lot of excited anxiety as I walk in.

Sometimes I think like I'm more excited than they are

'cause it's like oh!

Just, I love Christmas if you haven't been able

to tell yet.

I hope they're happy.

I hope this is what they wanted.

[doorbell ringing]

What is going on?

- [Mom] Merry Christmas, come in.

- So I'm an elf, my name is Jamie.

Santa has sent me down.

I have some presents for you,

and when we're done, I have more presents.

And when we're done, I have more presents.

You think you can handle that?

- [Kids] Yeah!

- Yeah?

Who is Victoria?

Okay, there's one for you,

you can take it over there.

Lorelai, is that how you say it?

All right, there you are.

Ooh, I think that's for you, don't I, huh?

Hmmm, okay.

See if Santa knew what you wanted.

- [Kid] He would know.

- Look at what I got! - Yeah!

- [Leticia] It's nice to feel remembered

and to know that people still care.

- [Jamie] Well, I hope you've enjoyed our visit.

Have a very Merry Christmas.

Remember, Santa's always watching.

Tomorrow starts the new year.

- [Kid] Tomorrow?

- [Jamie] So you gotta start being good all over again.

- Again!

[tense music]

- [Taylor] Dear Santa, my name is Taylor.

I would really appreciate clothes or household items,

things for my children.

- [Kendra] We just need everything for the baby.

Cribs and car seats and clothes.

- [Danielle] I need help with some household things

like the mattress for my kids.

- [Taylor] I really need a couch.

Love you Santa, thank you.

Love, Taylor.

- They might be upstairs.

[knocking]

Delivery from Santa.

[knocking]

- Hello. - Hi.

- [Woman] Ooh.

- That is you.

- Some more gifts from Santa.

- Oh my god!

- [Mailman] There you go, look.

- Ooh!

- It's a baby doll!

- OMG! - A baby doll?

- Oh, lots of dishes.

- The big one's mine.

- The big one is yours, it's heavy too.

- It's for the kitchen!

We have some plates and bowls!

- Hi, I'm helping Santa Claus out

and I have one more thing for you.

- [Mailman] One more gift.

- We got one more gift? - One more,

yep, one more.

- Santa said you needed a new couch?

- [screeching] I got a couch!

- [Kid] Couch, couch, yay, couch!

Couch, couch!

- Get up there.

Come here, Manny.

Let's test out the couch.

- Santa has more.

- Those are my beds? - Oh!

- Santa gifts, thank you! - Merry Christmas.

- [Kid] That's my bed?

- [Mail Woman] Who asked for this?

- The mattress.

We needed that.

Anything for that.

- [Mailman] For your brother.

- [Woman] For your baby, huh?

- [sobbing] This is a major blessing.

- Gonna be nice and comfy for you.

- I'm not getting in your bed no more.

- I bet you ain't. [laughing]

Got your own bed you can sleep in.

- Thank you Santa Claus!

[Taylor laughing]

- Thanks, Santa!

- Keep writing Santa, okay?

- Bless you.

- Bless you!

- Let's put the binkie in her mouth.

There we go.

[bells jingling]

[machinery whirring]

- For the logistics of all of this,

we have 31 families.

So we drop them onto a map

and literally, we just start circling neighborhoods

and times and we figure out

when we're gonna do deliveries in batches of,

we could probably knock out six to eight at a time.

And we rent a truck and we drive around the city

for a few days delivering the gifts

to all the families.

[bright music]

Ready?

- [Ashley] Thank you.

- When these people write these letters,

I feel like they're just releasing

just a little bit of the pain,

a little bit of the hurt.

Send it out into the world,

message in a bottle type deal.

- Hey! - Hey!

- [Jen] I see a tree!

I just know from how I felt as a kid,

just knowing that somebody else was thinking of you,

that you weren't forgotten,

that somebody perhaps understood your pain.

- [Matt] Just take it all out.

There's stuff for everybody.

- Usually I'm the one that's like what do you need?

And this year it's like, - It's our job.

- Now, yeah.

Now the tables are turned.

Can you get that?

- That's for mom.

- Thank you all so much.

- Thank you. - Thank you.

- Bye, have a Merry Christmas. - Bye, merry Christmas.

- [Girl] Merry Christmas.

- [Ashley] Bye, buddy.

- Bye bye, guys. - Bye guys.

- [Jen] You got presents to open.

- Oh my god! [laughing]

[bells jingling]

- Today's the big day.

We've been gearing up towards this

from the fundraiser to running around to the stores,

to everywhere, and the Christmas miracle

is coming to its finale.

This is the kid's names right, first name, last name.

This is kind of like probably what's in the gift right here.

- Okay.

- I was wrapping all night long.

I got about three, four hours sleep last night.

And my girlfriend Valentina, she was up.

Hasn't slept a wink yet.

Up all night cooking 400 cupcakes.

- We have vanilla.

I see, now you have the chocolate.

- Damion said that they were 25 totally shy

of meeting their goal.

So I told him that I'd love to help

and made some phone calls to people in my network.

I drove all through the night to get here

to try and get as many toys as we could here,

and we got them the toys that they needed.

- You good, come in this way.

Yup.

[bright music]

We have 160 letters or so that were written to us

but there's gonna be probably another 40, 50,

even more kids that'll just kinda trickle in

that haven't written letters.

So I think it's probably around 200 to 300 kids.

- [Man] Talk to them.

- Oh, there's still one here.

We give the three gifts.

- Well, 60s are over here.

- It's kinda like the list, you know,

checking it twice.

I've checked it a lot more than twice.

Many more times than twice.

- Have you been a good boy?

Yeah?

Would you tell me if you weren't?

Yeah, okay, Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

- Just like how it happened to me

when I did Operation Santa Claus and I got that gift

and it changed my life,

I'm sure there's gonna be some children here,

some maybe adults too,

but children are gonna get that gift,

they're gonna say, you know, I remember

that this happened.

This amazing thing where somebody had that thoughtfulness

and they're gonna pay it forward

and this just continues.

I mean for me, to see all the kids get their gifts,

it's that Christmas magic,

it's what gets me out of bed in the morning.

It's what makes me just continue my day to day.

This is what to me life is all about.

- [Man] Ooh wee, yeah!

- I love my present!

[gentle holiday piano music]

- I haven't seen Santa.

No, I haven't seen Santa Claus

but I plan to make sure I get to see him this year.

- He knows when people are sleeping.

- He know when I'm awake.

- Well I plan to wake up in the middle of the night

to see him.

- [Kid] We have to be careful.

- 'Cause we don't wanna get on the naughty list.

If he catches you, then you won't get no presents.

You cannot go down the stairs.

- I promise I'll tell you what he looks like

if I ever get the chance to see him.

[chimes ringing]

[buzzer ringing]

- Hi.

- Oh, hello. - Hi.

- [Man] How's it going?

- Good. - Are you Bryan?

- Yeah.

- [Man] Hey, how's it going, Bryan?

Merry Christmas. - Hi.

- I'm Santa's helper, man, you know what I'm saying?

He had to send me here.

Got a little treat for you.

Little hat, there you go.

- Thank you.

- Oh, no!

Oh, no! - Oh, shoot!

- Bryan's not ready for this one. [laughing]

Oh, look what we got you, Bryan.

We're going and taking a nice little tour today.

No more train today.

Merry Christmas, man. - Thank you.

- Try to make it red for you, man,

it didn't work out.

- Oh yeah, thank you.

Oh, shoot!

Look at the lights!

I feel like a king. - The limo has everything.

- That's my Christmas present, cool to go!

Finally my dream came true.

- [Mom] Go Santa, go Santa, go Santa.

- [Everybody] Go Santa, go Santa, go Santa.

- [Kid] You're famous.

♪ Jingle bells, jingle bells

♪ Jingle all the way

[humming] Hey!

[kids laughing]

- Oh, we're in Rockefeller.

Look at that.

[kids gasping] - Oh my god!

- Ice skating! - It's even bigger

than last year.

- Wait, that's a ice skating rink?

- [Everyone] Yes!

[bright music]

Rockefeller Center, look, look, mood!

I didn't know the tree was so big.

Oh!

[bright holiday music]

- [Man] Times Square, guys.

- [Bryan] I like sharing it with my family because

they really deserve it.

- I think Santa is so good ,so wonderful, so amazing!

And all that they want, made their dream come true.

Santa Claus, love you!

- Santa Claus,

- Is,

- [Kid] The person who gives us presents.

- [Kid] He gives us presents.

- [Kid] He delivers presents

- [Kid] On Christmas, he gives toys to children

all around the world.

- [Kid] He got elf to help him.

- [Kid] They help get presents.

- [Kid] It can be different colors of Santa.

- [Michael] One thing that I've learned from this

is that one person can really make a difference.

- [Kid] You just give someone a present

even if you don't know them and that's your chance

to finally get to know that person.

- [Ms. Gellman] It's the foundation throughout your life

to remember how you helped somebody

and pay it forward.

- [Bill] It's just a good feeling that I've helped somebody,

that I put a smile on their face.

- [Jamie] The excitement in a child,

the memories you make with giving, with receiving,

I mean everything about it.

- [Jen] You'll never know how you benefited someone's life

and how you changed their life.

[gentle holiday piano music]

- [Woman] Thank you.

- [Woman] Thank you.

- [Woman] Just thank you so much.

- Thank you. - Thank you.

- Thank you. - Thank you all so much.

- [Kid] Thank you, Santa.

- [Kid] And Santa, I love you.

Merry Christmas.

- Merry Christmas! - Merry Christmas!

- [Kid] Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

♪ Oh Donner gonna rock

♪ Blitzen gonna rock

♪ Dancer, Prancer, Dasher gonna rock ♪

♪ See the reindeer rock

- [Woman] Imagine I was a martian

coming from another planet.

And I never ever heard of Santa Claus before.

Who is Santa Claus, what does he do?

I don't understand why everybody's

telling me about him.

♪ When Santa cracks his whip you're really gonna flip ♪

♪ 'cause the reindeer learned to rock and roll ♪

♪ Santa clause changed it all because ♪

♪ He knows what the bop beat means now ♪

♪ I even heard from an arctic bird ♪

♪ That the old boy wears blue jeans now ♪

♪ So the reindeer rock

- [Woman] You want me to ask you a different question?

Where does Santa Claus live

and can you tell me what it looks like?

♪ Across the milky way

♪ And see the reindeer rock rock rock rock rock ♪

♪ Rock

♪ Rock rock

♪ Rock rock rock

♪ Rock rock rock rock

- We also get, make snow angels, that's like,

let me lay on the floor and show you.

- [Woman] Okay.

- Whee!

Pretend I'm in snow, okay?

- [Woman] Okay.

- A snow angel takes a lot of work.

So we have to do this a couple of times.

♪ See the reindeer rock

♪ Once every twinkle toe down to the bow and so ♪

- I really don't know how.

- Uh.

- I don't know.

- I don't know what it looks like.

- Whatever you call that.

- And uh...

- I don't know.

But I think like...

♪ See the reindeer rock

- [Woman] Do you get toys from anybody else

other than Santa?

- I get some toys from my mom and my dad.

And my dad is really sweet.

'Cause he's very kind and he always takes us to the park.

And my mom, she's sweet too because

this one time we went out of town to get some donuts.

It's called Dunkin Donuts.

It was so delicious.

- [Man] You're really good at talking.

- [Woman] You really are.

- Yeah.

My brother say I'm just like a radio that won't shut up.

[laughing]

♪ When he comes to fill your stocking ♪

- [Woman] Want me to ask a different question?

Okay.

How does Santa get your letter

and then how does he get you the stuff?

Can you explain?

♪ We're gonna cheer this bug

♪ Across a moonlit rug

♪ Right down to the clock

♪ Santa fills your socks

♪ You'll make a real fun block

- [Woman] No?

[women laughing]

♪ Rock

[chimes tinkling]