Families asking Globe Santa for help reflect the world's stresses and hope

This holiday season, approximately 30,000 children in Massachusetts will be guaranteed a present thanks to Globe Santa and the people who donate to it.

The program, run by the Boston Globe Foundation, has been delivering boxes of toys and books to kids in need every Christmas since 1956.

Families get referred to the program through social service agencies or state programs. A child or guardian sends a handwritten letter to Globe Santa about why they need help. The letters get vetted, and some reach the desk of the Globe Santa editor Linda Matchan — a former longtime reporter at the paper.

Matchan and other journalists write newspaper stories based on the letters.

She told WBUR's All Things Considered host Lisa Mullins that the people asking for assistance paint a vivid picture of some the toughest issues in the headlines.

On reading the letters from people asking for Globe Santa's help:

"You can see the pain in their writing. ... You can see that they're extraordinarily well-educated and articulate and expressive. You can see that these are all kinds of people who belie the common misperception that [they're] just lazy people who are choosing not to pull themselves up by their bootstraps."

On some of this year's letters:

"This year we're seeing a lot of letters from Ukrainian families who have come here, perhaps leaving their husband behind to fight in Ukraine, but they've managed to come here with a small child. And they write letters about how traumatized their children are, how they still can't sleep at night because they're afraid of bombs."

Here's an excerpt of one such letter:

"Our family came to the USA from Ukraine a year ago because there was a war in our country. We have had a challenging year, but my children have shown great fortitude and adaptability. ...  I would like to ask the foundation to help us create an atmosphere of magic for [my children] and prolong their faith in Santa Claus and miracles as long as possible!"

"There was one little boy I remember who wrote [a] beautiful letter, saying, 'Globe Santa, I'm trying really hard to be good, because I'm staying with an aunt and uncle and I don't want them ... to throw us out.'

"They often feel that they're just on the edge, and they are. I mean, one thing that Globe Santa has taught me is that countless people of all income levels are just one diagnosis, one job loss due to COVID, one accident, away from financial ruin.

"I just finished one in which the children suffer from blindness. ... And so, what happens in these cases is that the parents can't both work. One parent has to be able to stay home with the child just to take them to medical appointments, but also to advocate for them. And that results in the family income taking a huge nosedive. And, again, they just need help to get through the holidays."

"... One thing that Globe Santa has taught me is that countless people of all income levels are just one diagnosis, one job loss due to COVID, one accident, away from financial ruin."

Linda Matchan

On letters related to the impact of addiction:

"I see a lot of letters that come in dealing with substance abuse. And very often, they come in from the guardians or the grandparents of the children. Or, in several cases, — this really astonished me this year — the great-grandparents.

"There was one case in which a woman who was a mother was struggling, and the grandmother wrote me that she'd been murdered and the case was still unsolved. And I looked it up, and it was a recognizable case. That's sort of when you read the paper, that's where you think the story ends. But that's not where the story ends. There are children who are struggling [and] just want to be like other children, and that's kind of where Globe Santa comes in.

"You know, people often say to us, 'Why do you give them toys? I mean, those are not,' as one writer put it to me in a letter, 'those are not exactly life's necessities.' " But if you're a child and you remember back to being a child, it is a necessity. You just want to feel like other kids. Even I remember going back to school after Christmas and everybody saying, 'Well, what did you get? Show me what you got.' And imagine if you got nothing. It just can make a child feel really worthless. And this gives them a little bit of dignity."

On hearing from Globe Santa recipients many years later:

"We often hear from people who are adults now, who were Globe Santa kids when they were little. ... One person [recently wrote], 'You know what? We got dolls, and we got, you know, a pretend pinball machine. And we got trucks, and they were all very cool. But it didn't really matter what we got. What the gift told us was that somebody remembered us, and that made a huge difference to us."