Although the holly-jolly best day of the year is fast approaching, due to the ongoing pandemic, Santa Claus isn’t coming to town to sit and hear kids’ wishes this year. So the Old Mill District is gathering their wishes for St. Nick in the form of letters. Although Kris Kringle can’t mingle, the Old Mill’s two special Christmas mailboxes, located near its north and south poles — that is, Jimmy John’s and Ben & Jerry’s — make it possible for Santa to learn kids’ wishes.

Santa and his elves have been stopping to pick up at 1 p.m. each Friday and Saturday, according to Carrie Ramoz, the Old Mill District’s marketing director.

“We started planning this in the middle of summer because we knew we couldn’t just do what we’ve always done, this year,” Ramoz said. “We really wanted to provide a way for kids to see Santa in real life. Everything has just been so digital this year, or behind plexiglass.”

The compromise: having Santa swoop into the District to pick up letters addressed to him.

“He is driving around in a very brightly decorated pick-up truck,” she said. “He’s in the back, where he can see people, and he’s playing Christmas music and he’s waving and ho-ho-hoing and doing all his Santa things.”

When the truck parks, the elves scurry out to grab the letters for him, lest the kids try to rush him, as happened on Black Friday, the first Friday he showed up to collect letters.

“Of course, Santa’s learning every time he goes down there,” Ramoz said with a chuckle. “A lot of the kids got so excited they weren’t able to maintain that distance, and so now Santa stays in the truck.”

Now, “The kids can see him, they can wave, they can holler, and he’ll wave and talk to them from the back of the truck that he’s in,” she said. “We can’t have them pose photos with him, but we think this is a really nice option just to get Santa down here this year, as opposed to being on a screen somewhere” — somewhere being The North Pole, of course.

This Friday and Saturday will mark the third and final weekend pickups, also scheduled for 1 p.m. each day. Each letter with a return address receives a response from Santa.

So far, the Old Mill District has received nearly 600 letters from as far away as New York, likely Thanksgiving-time visitors in town the first weekend of the letter-collecting campaign.

As for what the kids are asking for this year, “It’s been all over the place,” Ramoz said. “A lot of it’s depended on the age, of course.”

Yes, the hard-to-find PlayStation 5 has made some lists, along with video games, but outdoor equipment is also well-represented.

“A lot of kids are asking for bikes, and then skiing and snowboarding equipment, lots of the outdoor stuff kids in Central Oregon just grow up with,” Ramoz said.

The fictional wizard of choice among 30-somethings, Harry Potter merch has been a mainstay among the letter writers nearly 23 years after the first book’s release, she added.

“Whether it’s Harry Potter books or toys or video games, anything Harry Potter seems to be a running theme,” she said.

“Some of the kids have said, ‘I’ve been trying really hard to be nice to my bigger sister, but sometimes she’s just so mean I have to be mean back to her, but I’m really trying,” Ramoz said. “What’s been really cool is to see the level of honesty a lot of the kids have with Santa, which I think puts them on the good list right away.”

Although one younger child, Ramoz said, went so far as to provide their goodness for Santa: “The kid calculated that they had been 84 % good this year,” she said.

Only Santa knows the exact number at which one drops to the naughty list, but in a year like this, that number should be low. And from the sound of the letters, children have been trying really hard to be good.

“Some of the kids have been saying they’ve been doing their part to keep people safe with COVID, which has been really sweet to read. They’ve been doing what they can to keep their friends and family safe, and they hope Santa and his elves are staying safe and healthy,” Ramoz said. “So that’s been really sweet to see that that’s on their minds and their hearts, too.”

The hardships of 2020, including economic distress, shines through in the letters as well, Ramoz said in a follow-up email on Tuesday.

“Some of the letters this week have asked for $10 million dollars, for their mom to not have to work so hard, and to get rid of COVID.”