“Santa Is In Chelsea!” Amazing Christmas Story From The New York Times

video

by Jon Bershad | 10:57 am, December 24th, 2010

» 16 comments

With all the slots on my advent calendar finally open and the sound of furious wrapping coming from behind locked doors in houses all across the planet, it looks like Christmas eve is finally upon us. With that, the New York Times has posted a truly great video about a real life Christmas story that’s more miraculous and heartwarming than half the movies on your TV (no offense, He-Man and She-Ra: A Christmas Special). It tells the true story of a couple of men in New York who suddenly began receiving hundreds of letters at their door from children all across the city and all addressed to Santa Claus himself.

The report, entitled “Miracle on 22nd Street” is about Jim and Dylan, two men living in Chelsea who first began receiving the letters a couple of years ago. At first, it was just a few a year but, this year, the number reached 400. All were for Santa. All were from children. Many hinted at a Christmas fraught with economic problems. The mystery of why the letters were addressed to some random apartment has not been solved.

From The New York Times:

“They lost interest in finding out just why they were getting all these letters. But I didn’t. I did a bit of sleuthing. I reached out to three people who had sent letters. The first person I called said that she got the address, along with a few others, from a teacher in an English as a Second Language class in the Bronx. The teacher said that if they wrote the address, Santa might write them back. The woman on the phone would not give the teacher’s name or the location of the school. The second phone call led me to a mother who said she got the address on the post office Web site when she typed in Santa. I had her wait on the phone while I tried it and found nothing. I asked her to send me a link and did not hear back from her after a couple of attempts. The third woman said that her daughter got the address at her school, but when I called the school they claimed to know nothing about an address in Chelsea.”

Whatever the reason may be, Jim and Dylan sought to do something about the letters. I don’t want to ruin what happened. Just watch the video below and try not to have a little warming of the heart.

Christmas, New York, New York Times

BatBoy

I’m skeptical!

A good way to get publicity for free!
Just4thefax

Fact: Heart warming for DADT type lovers! Fabulous!
Newsjunky

That’s a nice story. Good job guys.
Powerslave

Jon Bershad said:
With all the slots on my advent calendar finally open

Ha! He’s a Christian!

Atheist left mobilize!!!

Swarm, swarm, swarm!!!
da-wdc

Awww. <3

nice story.
Jon Bershad

Powerslave said:
Ha! He’s a Christian!

Atheist left mobilize!!!

Swarm, swarm, swarm!!!

Actually, I worship a snake god named Fthazalu. We spend the month of December (or “The Time of Light Loss”) by cutting open a giant snake every day to reveal tiny baby snakes inside in preparation for the great Caracarva Harvest. Same basic principle.
TristramShandy

The story is amazing, the video is amazing, the guys are amazing and the New York Times is amazing for running this on thew front page of their online edition. It actually does more for the gay marriage cause than anything I’ve ever seen. God bless all concerned.
http://www.karlspensen.blogspot.com Karl Spensen

Just4thefax said:
Fact: Heart warming for DADT type lovers! Fabulous!

HAhahaHAhahahAHAHahahaHAHAHAHahah because they are GAYS!!!!!!1111 LOL!!!!!111 Who says that we are ignorant and hateful?!?!?!111
BarneyFranken

I’d still like to know exactly why the letters were coming to that particular address though…

Did they ever find out?

Either way, Its nice to see the spirit of Christmas alive, in a place where some might least expect it.
Paula

“MYSTERY” Solved.

They got the letters simply because some prior resident of the apartment picked up a letter from the Farley Post Office “Operation Santa” program and sent the child a present (or, more likely, SEVERAL children presents) and left their return address on the parcel. That address got picked up and passed around and kids now think they’re short-cutting directly to Santa. (Or, more likely, think that they have a better chance gaming the system and hitting up a prior generous soul directly, rather than taking their chances with the Farley Post Office “lottery”. At least this way, their letter is likely to get read/picked.

Anyone who has worked with Operation Santa, and put their return address on the parcel, has had the same experience. Its just that these two guys moved into an apartment where the prior tenant was, apparently, a very generous soul.

But in this case, you see, it was extra special because THIS couple is GAY. And we all know (and the Times will always remind us) that anythng that’s good that’s done by GAY people is EXTRA SPECIAL because GAY people are oh-so-extra special. The generous soul who preceded them in the apartment probably did if for years without fanfare and without acknowledgement, but he or she was likely heterosexual. But these gentlemen are GAY, so they deserve special notice — a news story, a video, maybe a special segment on the evening news. And we, of course, MUST acknowledge that they are GAY and accept them and repeat “GAY is good”, otherwise, we are all hatefuly homophobes.
Paula

TristramShandy said:
The story is amazing, the video is amazing, the guys are amazing and the New York Times is amazing for running this on thew front page of their online edition. It actually does more for the gay marriage cause than anything I’ve ever seen. God bless all concerned.

And that was probably their purpose.
greg454

“But in this case, you see, it was extra special because THIS couple is GAY. And we all know (and the Times will always remind us) that anythng that’s good that’s done by GAY people is EXTRA SPECIAL because GAY people are oh-so-extra special. ”

—Yet when gay people do something bad, the entire conservative Christian world jumps at the opportunity to remind everyone how evil gay people are. What say you now?

http://libertarians4freedom.blogspot.com/
greg454

Right Paula, like I haven’t seen tons of porn featuring girls taking it up their rear and in their mouth? Or those wonderful gangbangs where two men penetrate the same woman, sometimes in the same orifice, or the famous facial cum shots. Like I haven’t seen a man liked a woman’s anus, then her vagina, then back and forth? Yet in all that porn I’ve yet to see any fecal matter, I guess most people CLEAN themselves before doing such things. Of course, taking a girl’s virginity is so normal, right? I mean, it’s so nice to screw something that bleeds. In the arab world after they consumate the marriage the husband comes back with the bloody sheet to prove that his wife was a virgin. Yeah, that’s way more normal than screwing people up the rear. By the way, if the penis was designed for the vagina how come rape results in vaginal scarring and tearing? How come some women can’t take a big penis, like 9 or 12 inches? How come some women are frigid or say they have a headache or simply don’t enjoy sex as much as men? Look around you, Paula, why do you think there are so many strip bars and adult stores around? Why do you think the escort section of the yellow pages is 4, if not 10 pages? Gays aren’t abnormal, they are simply lucky they don’t have to deal with women. I envy them, my God, how I wish it was a choice so I could choose to be gay and stop putting up with cold-hearted bitches that don’t give it up! Oh well, maybe the gays will give me a BJ, see? That’s another thing women like you don’t do.
http://libertarians4freedom.blogspot.com/
Magister

@Paula: I’m going to ignore all of your judgments, damnations and what-not to say that if you had followed the link, you would’ve seen that a freelance filmmaker went to party at the “Santa’s” house, heard about the letters and made a little movie that they wrapped in a blog post.

It’s not some big plot by the Times. She put together something that was published on one of their blogs and the film, plus the post has been linked and embedded all over, which caused a lot of traffic and that’s every blog’s goal.

As for whether or not it has something to do with some Post office and a return address or if it has something to do with the Children’s Aid Society as one of the CityRoom commenters theorized, but if you know somebody or lots of people who are answering random letters to Santa, perhaps you should get out your camcorder and make a post.
jrcmi

Powerslave said:
Ha! He’s a Christian!

Atheist left mobilize!!!

Swarm, swarm, swarm!!!

You probably won’t find many atheists even among the far left – though people like YOU may cause some lefties to question evolution.

I’m a “pastafarian,” myself. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster)

So, Paula . . . when’s the last time YOU played Santa for a person in need? Too many self-proclaimed Christians are quick to condemn others and mighty, mighty SLOW to heed Christ’s directive to help the hungry and poor among us.

Proverbs 14:31: “He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.”

People of good will come in all shapes, sizes, sexes and sexual preferences. Thank heaven.
hkluiliu

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