Elf Carey, Co-Founder of Package From Santa

Hello from the North Pole desk

Every letter that leaves here passes across one desk, and this is the elf sitting at it.

Carey co-founded Package From Santa® in 2006 with Dale, her husband and soulmate, and the two of them have run it as a family ever since. Around the workshop she is Elf Carey. At home she is the mom who still gets a little teary in November when the first packages go out. More than a million children across the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico have opened one of these now, and she still stops to picture their faces on Christmas morning.

If you have ever stood in a doorway holding your breath while your child opened an envelope, the two of you already have something in common.

The letter that started all of this

In December 2005, Carey ordered a letter from Santa for their little boy, Chase. Not from here. Package From Santa® did not exist yet. She ordered it the way any hopeful parent does, from a company she found and trusted, and then she waited by the mailbox like it was Christmas morning already.

It arrived with the wrong name on it.

Anyone who has watched a small face light up and then fall knows exactly how long that takes. About a second. The envelope was beautiful, the paper was lovely, and none of it mattered, because Santa had called her son somebody else's name.

So they did what parents do, which is stay up. Carey sat down that night and wrote Chase a second letter herself, an apology straight from Santa, with a very sorry explanation about a mix-up at the workshop and every last detail about his year spelled exactly right. Dale is an artist and a designer by nature, so he made it look the part: the letterhead, the seal, the way the paper sat in the envelope, all the small things a child checks without knowing he is checking. The two of them worked at the kitchen table until it was right.

Chase believed every word of it. The magic held.

The next year, the two of them started Package From Santa® so that no other parent would ever have to stay up rewriting somebody else's mistake. That is still how the whole thing runs. Carey writes and reads and looks after the families. Dale draws and designs and builds. Neither half works without the other.

What Elf Carey does all year

Santa gets the credit, obviously. Somebody still has to keep the workshop running.

Carey looks after the books and, more to the point for anyone reading this, she looks after you. When you write in during the season wondering where a package is, whether there is still time to add a second child, or which one to choose for a nine year old who has started asking questions at bedtime, it is Carey reading that message. Usually late. Usually with a cup of something hot going cold beside her. Dale is generally at the next desk over, drawing the thing she just promised somebody.

Those conversations, thousands of them now, are where everything on this blog comes from. Not from a keyword tool. From a grandma in Ohio worried the mail will not make it, from a mom whose oldest is in his last believing year, from a dad who wants his daughter to have something to keep long after she has worked it all out.

What you will find in these articles

Mostly, the things Carey wishes somebody had told her that first December.

How to answer the question when it finally comes. What the window of believing actually looks like, and how short it is. What to write so a letter sounds like it came from someone who has been paying attention all year. Which small touches make a doubting nine year old go quiet and look up at you.

These articles are written for the grown-ups. That said, we know perfectly well that curious little people wander in here too, following a question they typed themselves, so everything is written with one eye on the doorway. Nothing here goes out of its way to end anybody's magic.

You will also never find a naughty-list threat, a guilt trip, or advice about tricking your child. Wonder has never needed any of that. It only needs somebody to get the details right.

Package From Santa® at a glance

The short version
Founded	2006, by Carey and Dale together, the year after a store-bought Santa letter arrived with the wrong name on it
Who runs it	Family owned and independently run, by the two of them
What arrives	Personalized letters from Santa, Nice List certificates, keepsake boxes and North Pole extras
Better Business Bureau	A+ rating
Children who have opened one	More than 1 million, across the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico
Families who have written back	More than 4,600 reviews
Our promise	90-Day Money-Back Guarantee

Articles by Elf Carey

• Letters From Santa: The Complete Guide for Parents
• How to Get a Personalized Letter From Santa
• What Age Do Kids Stop Believing in Santa?
• Where Does Santa Live? Inside the North Pole in Summer
• Is Santa Real? Yes, and Here Is the Story Behind Him
• Magic Reindeer Food Recipe: The Official North Pole Version

Read everything on the Package From Santa® blog.

Come say hello

Questions about an order, a delivery, or which package suits your child land with customer service, which in this house means they land with Carey. If you have written in before and got an answer that sounded like it came from an actual person who cared whether that envelope made it to your door, that was her.

And if your child is at the age where the questions are starting, take heart. You have more time than you think, and this year can still be a good one.