ORIG 12/23/20 Duane Huddleston checks for letters in a mail box for Santa out front of his Deschutes River Woods home on Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2020.

The red, wooden mailbox on Baker Road, the main drag through the Deschutes River Woods neighborhood south of Bend, assures children their letters to Santa will reach the North Pole.

“Santa Mail” is painted on the mailbox outside the home of Duane and Anne Huddleston, telling children they found the right place to send their Christmas wishes.

More than 60 children have dropped their letters in the mailbox and a few days later they received a response from Jolly Old St. Nicholas. In each letter, the children told Santa how good they were this year and shared their wishes for presents, such as a big teddy bear, Legos and a fairy doll.

The Huddlestons, grandparents who have lived in the neighborhood since 2011, built and decorated the mailbox.

The couple made sure Santa answered all of the letters.

“The mailbox was constructed and letters began pouring in as soon as it was placed, the day after Thanksgiving,” Duane Huddleston said.

Duane Huddleston, 65, a retired log truck driver and U.S. Forest Service contractor, said his woodworking skills and he and his wife’s love of children made them good candidates to build and display the mailbox. His wife decorated the mailbox with a red bow and a wreath and inspected each letter.

The couple, who raised six children and have three grandchildren, enjoyed seeing the neighborhood children’s handwriting and drawings on the letters.

“The letters were really, really cute,” Duane Huddleston said. “We had a lot of fun reading those letters to each other. It brought us a lot of cheer.”

The Huddlestons felt honored to brighten the holidays for the children living in Deschutes River Woods, a quiet, unincorporated area of about 4,000 people.

Hosting the letters-to-Santa mailbox was part of a neighborhoodwide effort this year to spread holiday joy that included a competition for most decorated homes and food and clothing donations among neighbors, the Huddleston said.

Santa even visited the neighborhood twice for photos with children.

“This holiday season has provided an opportunity for our community to draw closer together thanks to the energetic efforts of an outspoken few and to the responsiveness of many,” Duane Huddleston said.

Bernice Gates, a Deschutes River Woods resident who helped organize the holiday festivities, said the community started discussing ways to help each other in late summer, when the historic wildfires brought heavy smoke to Central Oregon and destroyed communities around the state.

By Thanksgiving, neighbors were donating meals to each other and planning ways to make the Christmas season memorable, especially with so many families struggling financially due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Gates said.

The neighborhood responded. Gates was amazed at the amount of donations and number of houses decorated with Christmas lights.

“It’s just been a giant ball of magic in Deschutes River Woods,” Gates said. “When you drive down the street, you would not know we didn’t have street lights because it is so light.”

Spreading holiday cheer was especially meaningful for the Huddlestons after their 30-year-old son, Lee, died in February while saving a girl in Federated States of Micronesia.

Lee Huddleston was in the island nation in the Pacific Ocean teaching English. While at a picnic, he rescued a 6-year-old girl who was struggling in the ocean current. Huddleston made it back to shore, but collapsed and died of an apparent heart attack.

Losing their son this year was a motivation to make the most of this Christmas season, the couple said.

“The death of one of my sons in February of this year helped to create a heightened awareness of how precious memories are,” Duane Huddleston said.

Some of the letters the Huddlestons received for Santa revealed how tough of a year it has been for families in their neighborhood.

One boy asked for help for his father, who is injured, and for an extra video game controller so they could both play together. Another child asked for COVID-19 to go away.

“Can you make it snow,” asked one child, “and make my parents happy?”

“Some of these letters, they give you a little portal into what is going on in these families’ lives,” Duane Huddleston said.

Neighborhood organizers might want to move the mailbox to another house next year, but the Huddlestons said they would be happy to make their home the annual location for Santa’s mail.

“I’ll consult with the organizers,” Duane Huddleston said. “But I think that could well happen.”