Youngsters around the world are going to be a little blue this upcoming Christmas season, as the US Postal Service is officially ending their decades-long Letters to Santa program that earns children a response letter from Santa's elves and helpers, postmarked in the North Pole. The program begun in the small Alaska town of North Pole in 1954 and enlists volunteers to respond to letters from children writing to Santa.

The sudden change is a result of the Maryland postal worker discovering that one of last year's letter-writing volunteers was a registered sex offender (he was stopped before he responded to any letters). Though the USPS had tightened security the year prior by requiring volunteers to show ID, the discovery caused Operation Santa to temporarily suspend their program in New York and Chicago last year. This little scare has caused them to further tighten the reigns on similar programs nationwide, as they fear for the safety of children whose full names and addresses were readily available.

Residents and officials in the Christmas-loving town of North Pole, which is decked out in candy cane light posts and has street names such as Kris Kringle Drive and Santa Claus Lane, are more than disappointed about the program's end, and have even gone as far as to call the USPS "Grinchlike." Mayor Doug Isaacson said it was indeed necessary to protect children's safety, but is upset with the USPS' delay in alerting North Pole volunteers of the change, as it requires extensive changes to their program that they will be unable to make in time for the holidays.

"It's Grinchlike that the Postal Service never informed all the little elves before the fact," he said. "They've been working on this for how long?"

The new security changes will require children's family names and addresses to be hidden, says agency spokeswoman Sue Brennan. The last names will be redacted and the addresses will be replaced with codes that match computerized addresses only available to post office staff. It is up to the local post offices if they want to participate in the program and deal with the extra hassle of shielding this information.

Pamela Moody, an Anchorage-based agency spokeswoman, said this kind of extensive preparation isn't feasible in Alaska.

"It's always been a good program, but we're in different times and concerned for the privacy of the information," she said.

Of course the agency stresses that kids can still send letters to Santa, as the Operation Santa Program will still be maintained, it's just that they may not receive a letter from the North Pole.

Unless North Pole, Alaska is able to accommodate the new security restrictions, the program will be discontinued this year.

This is so bittersweet, but we agree, there is no price too great for the safety of our children. What do you think? Did you ever write a letter to Santa as a child?

via AP