Emu Plains local Linda Hernando getting kids’ Xmas lists and letters to Santa

Linda Hernando has had her special Santa mailbox outside her Western Sydney home for kids to send their wishlists to the man in red since 2012. See the video.

Australia Post might be swamped with Christmas deliveries but a special western Sydney mailbox will make sure letters to Santa go straight to the North Pole.

Emu Plains local Linda Hernando has set up her Santa mailbox out the front of her home, ready to receive Christmas wish lists and letters addressed to the man in red.

Ms Hernando, 52, has been putting out the festive letterbox in her front yard since 2012, and personally organises and delivers “replies” from Santa for each child who posts their letter.

She said even though it was hard work keeping up with the flood of festive mail, she enjoyed spreading the Christmas spirit to local youngsters.

Nagaretman siblings, Michael 8, Amisha, 9 and Nishelle, 12, with their letters to Santa to drop off at the special mailbox at Linda Hernando’s home in Emu Plains. Picture: Toby Zerna

“The first few years I did it I’d get maybe 10 to 20 letters from children in nearby streets, but last year I got close to 200 letters,” Ms Hernando said.

“It takes up a lot of time, replying and delivering them all back, but I just love Christmas, and parents will often tell me how excited the kids are to get a letter back from Santa. It just makes their day.”

Ms Hernando uses a database system to organise names, addresses and gift requests in replies for the letters, before mapping out a route to deliver them back.

“I try and personalise each one, answer any questions the kids wrote in their letters and add a candy cane or little decorations in the envelope too, it just makes it more special,” she said.

“I think (the mailbox) helps the parents too, because sometimes after their child has sent me a letter they’ll pull me aside and go, ‘what did they ask for?’.”

Amisha Nagaretman shows off her letter to Santa while her siblings Michael and Nishelle post the man in red via the Emu Plains letterbox. Picture: Toby Zerna

The mailbox is typically part of Ms Hernando’s enormous display of Christmas lights, which take a month to set up, but she “sadly” decided to keep decorations boxed up due to social distancing concerns.

She said she hoped the mailbox, which she is leaving outside for kids to post letters in for the next two weekends, would be a pandemic-safe way to help spread Christmas kindness.

“There’s kids who’ve posted their letters in my mailbox every year who are now teenagers … I think we do a pretty good job at spreading Christmas spirit, Santa would be proud,” Ms Hernando said.