Did you hear the latest in Santa-related news? It’s the age of innocence lost for little Santa letter writers.

The U.S. Postal Service will be dropping its popular Santa Letter Writing Program this year. Started in 1954 in a small town called North Pole, Alaska, the program allowed generations of children to write to Santa and receive a handwritten reply from Santa with a North Pole postmark.

The program relied on the commitment of thousands of volunteers all over the country to answer each piece of mail. Last year, however, postal workers realized that a registered sex offender had volunteered for the program.

This year, the Postal Service imposed tighter restrictions that included blacking out children’s names and addresses. The extra measure was intended to prevent volunteers from having access to children’s personal information as an additional safeguard for families. Unfortunately, the changes have made the program inadvertently cost prohibitive and too cumbersome for most local postal offices. More information here.

What do you think about the Postal Service dropping the Santa Letter Writing Program? Is it time for Santa to go online, perhaps?