This East Hill pharmacist is playing Santa as she collects, replies to Christmas letters

Pharmacist McClellan Grimm is channeling her inner Saint Nick this Christmas season as she collects letters to Santa, usually cryptic with scribbled children's handwriting, and sends an email response back to the author's parents detailing the child's ultimate wish list.

Each morning, she eagerly checks the crimson red “Letters for Santa” mailbox stationed outside of her East Hill Pharmacy on 2899 N. 12th Ave. for letters addressed to a North Pole zip code.

A camo Nerf gun, chapter books, a pink chair and a backyard football field are among the requests she has received, and passed along to higher powers, so far.

“Every morning when I get here it makes me excited to be able to read the letters and then say, ‘Oh — look at this one!’” she said.

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The life-sized mailbox started out as a T.J. Maxx find while out shopping for Christmas decorations. But she has since made the "decoration" come to life in what she hopes will be a new Christmas tradition for the East Hill community.

Letters can be dropped off to the mailbox any time the pharmacy is open, then the box is pulled inside the shop at night for maximum security. She will be accepting letters from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday through Friday and from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Saturday until the mailbox “disappears” on Dec. 23.

All parents have to do is leave an email address on the back of the envelope for her to email them back. Parents can expect to see an email shortly after in their inbox with the subject line of ‘Santa’s Nice List” detailing their child's requests.

Some of the singular letters are filled with enough items to fill a quite a few of Santa’s sleighs, while other requests have been much more modest. One memorable letter she recalls a child explaining the unique problem of being out-of-town on Christmas Day, in fear that Santa would accidentally miss his home.

He requested that a single present be left wrapped under his Christmas tree and promised that his grandmother would be there to tend to it until his return.

The experience has brought the Christmas magic back to the season for her, by not only creating an experience her 4-year-old daughter can participate in, who is still working on getting her own letter just right, but also for children in the community.

“We moved to East Hill recently, and I love how the community — they are all the time doing something,” she said. “So, I was like, ‘What would be good for East Hill?’ and of course, the rest of Pensacola too, but specifically our little community.”

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More important than the gifts that the children may receive from the activity, she hopes they will take the memories with them.

“Me and my husband really love Christmas, but it’s not about gifts…it’s just about spending time with each other, putting up the Christmas lights. So now that we have a daughter, it’s cool again to be able to see her face on Christmas Day and how excited (she is),” she said.

In the coming years, she would also like to grow the tradition and arrange for a real-life “Santa” to set up shop outside of the mailbox for a few hours one day.

“I don’t know if it is too late this year, because I’m sure they are all booked up. But definitely next year, we are going to do that,” she said.

More updates and information on the "Letters for Santa" process can be found on the East Hill Pharmacy Facebook page.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: East Hill pharmacist invites community to drop off letters for Santa