'USPS Operation Santa' lets anyone be a Secret Santa for a kid in need

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- There's a certain gift 9-year-old Syhriah has been dreaming of getting for Christmas. She got all A's this year in school and promises she's been good. In order to get her special gift, however, it's going to take a little Christmas magic.

"Sometimes we have people in a situation where they can't afford a gift for the kids," said Bobby Mack, the customer relations coordinator at the USPS in North Philadelphia.

He's helping to run the USPS Operation Santa program there.

In 17 cities around the country, USPS locations are inviting kids in to write letters to Santa and putting them in a box.

"Writing a letter to Santa is one of the better ways of trying to help these kids have a very good Christmas," said Mack.

That's because the letter then goes into a database on the website, uspsoperationsanta.com.

Anyone can go there and simply "adopt a letter," then purchase the gift anonymously for the kids, and then ship it using a barcode. From there, the postal service will be able to deliver the gift to the kids.

The program has been around for 107 years, but this is the first year the digital version is available in Philadelphia.

The post office says it's going to have another day where it invites kids to locations around the city to write letters. USPS is asking all letters to be turned in to any post office by December 14.