ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The Trujillo family goes all out for Christmas, and Santa’s elves have noticed. The Santa Mailbox sitting on their curb every year gets stuffed with letters from children across Albuquerque.

Every year, Santa receives those letters, and writes back. 

“I think our favorite, the family favorite, is the Christmas alligator up front,” said Jared Trujillo. 

This is not your average Christmas light display. 

“The polar bears are new this year, the fish are new,” said Trujillo.

Jared Trujillo and his family go all out at their home in the northeast heights. 

“35,000 lights, 50 characters, and over 20 inflatables.”

80 hours of work, worth it for the smiles.

“Kids and people come by every night, and they really enjoy just seeing the lights, and how many there are and the ‘Wow’ people get,” said Trujillo.

But there is one piece of this display that requires extra magic – the Santa Mailbox.

“We like to say we have a direct connection to Santa Claus,” Trujillo said.

The Trujillo’s originally put it out as one of their many decorations.

“2020 when we were decorating, someone left letters in it from 2019,” said Trujillo.

So they decided to make it a thing, a way to spread cheer during the pandemic. Santa’s elves were on board and the letters started pouring in. 

“The biggest reaction is ‘You know Santa?!’ I’m like ‘Absolutely, he’s our buddy.’ We tell them we’re one of Santa elves, we help him get the letters,’” said Trujillo.

Since 2020, they’ve received 250 letters from children across the metro. 

“Stacks and stacks and stacks of letters,” said Trujillo. 

But it’s not always just toys topping the kids’ lists.

“They ask for happiness. During the pandemic, a lot of the kids through 2020 and 2021 asked for the world to get back to normal again, they wished coronavirus to go away,” Trujillo said. 

Trujillo says Santa always tries to get a letter back, encouraging the children to be loving and kind. He also asked them not to forget the snacks for him or his reindeer.

“We’ve actually had people comment back and said the letters actually helped their kids believe again,” said Trujillo. 

Trujillo says it’s helpful if you leave a return address on the card, so Mrs. Claus won’t have to look up all the addresses. There’s a stamp shortage at the North Pole, so including a stamp is helpful too.