Photo by erin_m.

Not to depress the whole lot of you, but this story in USA Today — about how the United States Post Office is receiving more letters to Santa from children asking for basic needs instead of toys — is one of the most melancholic news blasts I’ve read in some time:

Santa Claus and his elves are seeing more heartbreaking letters this year as children cite their parents’ economic troubles in their wish lists.

U.S. Postal Service workers who handle letters addressed to Santa at the North Pole say more letters ask for basics — coats, socks and shoes — rather than Barbie dolls, video games and computers.

[…]

Fontana, a customer relations coordinator for the Postal Service, has been head elf for 15 years.

“The need is greater this year than I’ve ever seen it,” he says. “One little girl didn’t want anything for herself. She wanted a winter coat for her mother.”

I’ll give you a moment so that you can snicker about the fact the Postal Service has a “head elf.” You’ll need it after consuming this miserable boom:

There are more letters from unemployed parents asking for kids’ gifts they can’t afford, says Darlene Reid of New York City’s main post office.

One mom sent a turn-off notice from the electric company, Fontana says. A single mother of a girl, 8, and a boy, 2, wrote that she recently lost her job. “I am unable to buy my children toys and clothes,” she said. “Santa may you help me with my family?”

If the goal of this report was to get me to link to Toys for Tots and encourage those who are able to go and drop off some toys at the Children’s National Medical Center, well, mission accomplished, USA Today.