Please, Dear Santa, try to remember that Caitlyn Starin still lives in Maryland and not New York.
"So don't forget to look for me here," she writes. "It's been a long time since last Christmas."
Santa should look on Brady Avenue in Baltimore for the bright-eyed girl smiling a big, wide smile in the self-portrait Caitlyn drew. She'd like a Sleeping Beauty Barbie and Prince Ken doll for Christmas this year.
"Even when I'm mad, bad or glad, I'm still a good girl," Caitlyn assures Santa. "And my Mommy always loves me."
Stuart Helgeson from Annapolis is 6 years old, and he's been a good boy, and he'd like to see a wooden toy soldier, a dog sled and a Lego police station under the tree on Christmas morning.
And he asks, "Santa, I would like to know if Rudolph is real?'
Russell from Ellicott City is straightforward: "I want a riding mower for Christmas because it looks cool.
"P.S. I want to come over for dinner."
And, of course, Santa puts kids on their best behavior. Darren Consen, also from Ellicott City, really, really wants a BB gun just like his cousin Richard's.
"You know me," Darren promises Santa. "I won't ever point the gun at anyone."
Up on St. Charles Street, Kathleen sat down to write with a big red felt-tipped pen and indifferent spelling. She urged Santa to bring her "anything by the Backstreet Boys espesially the calender, the Britteny Spears CD, and any awsome close.
"Love, Kathleen, Write back."
Kathleen probably will get a card from Santa. Around here most of the letters addressed to Santa Claus at the North Pole pass through the Central Post Office in Baltimore, on Fayette Street across from the Shot Tower.
Santa's helpers sorting the mail at the post office will try to make sure every letter with a return address gets a note signed "Love, Santa." Santa lets them know he's received their lists and he's working on them, "so good little boys and girls, like yourself, will not be missed.
"Keep in mind that Santa will soon be in his reindeer-drawn sleigh bringing joy to all this Special Holiday!"
But even if you forgot to put your address on your letter, don't worry.
"Santa knows!" says Greg Colburn, ad hoc communications coordinator for the Postal Service here. "Santa knows where they live, right?!"
Right, Greg, there are no skeptics under the Christmas tree. The letters to Santa ring with sincerity, honesty, charm, hope and even a certain restraint.
"If you have time in your busy scedual," Rachael Sanders suggests some golf covers for her mother, a display case for her father's coins and a rubbery toy for her grandparents' new dog, Casey.
"As for me, I don't want very much," says Rachael, some clothes for her doll, who wears 18-month-old baby outfits, and some Pokemon stuff.
"I hope that you are able to complete my requests. If for some reasons you are unable to, I will understand.
"Also please excuse me if I do not spell something incorrectly," she asks in somewhat tangled syntax. Spelling and grammar are not really priorities among these Santa letter writers.
Hundreds of letters to Santa come into the post office during the Christmas season. Colburn divides them into two categories.
"These are the cute ones," he says, separating out the kids' wish lists from the letters from needy families. "These are the ones that will break your heart."
"Dear Santa," writes a woman on Argyle Avenue in a neatly printed letter, "could you please help me. I have two of my nephews. Their mother and father is locked-up.
"Tavon is three years old and Donald is one. As young as they are they had a hard life until they came and moved in with me. I get a disability check. After I pay the bills there is no money left over for Christmas.
"I feel so sad when the oldest boy asks me is he a bad child and why Santa didn't bring him any toys last Christmas. I told him that he is a good child and Santa will bring him some toys. His mother and father was on drugs. So if you could help us please show them that Santa does like them. I would like to see that big smile on his face Christmas day
"I would also like to cook a turkey. He never ate turkey before. Tavon told me to tell you Santa that he loves you and he is a good boy."
The letter from Tavon's aunt goes into the "Adopt-A-Family" file. The Postal Service matches needy families with people who would like to help. WBAL has "adopted" Tavon's family.
Many of the letters are from elderly grandmothers and grandfathers, aunts and uncles, who have taken on the burden of raising the children of their children or even of their grandchildren. Often they are from single mothers or fathers struggling alone with their children. Their wants are modest: clothes, food, a toy. They send Santa each child's size, in pants, socks, gloves and coats.
A 52-year-old grandfather from Waverly has just taken over the care of his granddaughter, who is 9, and his grandson, 12.
