FROM SANTA CLARITA WITH LOVE.

Byline: Stacy Brown Daily News Staff Writer

Sifting through yet another pile of Dear Santa letters, postal worker and volunteer elf Judy Davis stopped dead in her tracks when she saw it.

It was the letter from what appeared to be a grown woman. ``My daughter hasn't had much of a Christmas for a few years now,'' read the note from the June Lake area. ``I am not financially able to do much, as I am on disability. My daughter is 13 and we live alone. For years we haven't had a tree . . .''

Davis, so touched by this letter to St. Nick, decided to adopt the woman's family and help make her Christmas wishes come true.

She made immediate plans to come to her assistance, as hundreds of other postal workers have done when they've volunteered to read the thousands of letters addressed to the North Pole that land each year at the U.S. Postal Service's central distribution center in Castaic.

``I will contact the postmaster out there and I will buy them food and some things for the child. I just want them to have a Christmas,'' Davis said.

Behind this thrust by postal volunteers to do Santa's bidding is Stacia Crane, manager of the Consumer Affairs Division. Crane and company have staunchly - and anonymously - answered Santa letters over the past several years, letters that come in by the bagful.

``The letters come in (in) bundles at a time, all addressed to Santa at the North Pole,'' Crane said. ``And it's not just kids - it's teen-agers and adults, too. You never know what you're going to see.''

Crane and her colleagues use their own time to respond to these letters. They get their co-workers, friends and neighbors to volunteer their time to respond to the letters, fulfilling requests for gifts and even adopting a child or family for the holidays.

``We go out there and try to grant wishes,'' Crane said.

But as Crane and her newly hired assistant, Jody Martin, will attest, not all of the wishes are easy to grant.

``People write in saying their mom lost her job, their dad is in jail, the family needs shoes. It's amazing how many needy people are out there,'' Martin said.

``I warned Jody about the hazards of this when she came aboard,'' Crane said. ``You get attached, it gets very emotional here, and for the most part the parents of a lot of these kids don't know they've written to Santa.''

One letter starts sweetly enough: Santa, please bring me some dresses and a Barbie . . . But what brings Stacia Crane to tears as she scans yet another gut-wrenching letter to Santa Claus, is the child's biggest wish: Please get her daddy out of jail, because he didn't really kill the man who had raped a member of her family.

Of the more than 10,000 letters that pour in each year, there can also be cause for a little laughter amid the tears. Eight-year-old Ellen writes from the San Fernando Valley, ``Dear Santa, I sort of (do) not believe in you, I sent you a letter last year and told you what I wanted.

``I did not get what I wanted. Every Christmas I cried, I always wished on the first star . . . I ask for no toys, I have no time for toys. All I really want is this . . . I must have proof that you are real . . .''

On Christmas Eve, Crane, Davis and other dedicated volunteers will do what they can to make Santa real to a lot of those who write.

``By then, we would have done all of our verifications and with whatever donations we get, we will buy that little girl whose father is in jail a Barbie doll, some dresses and give her and many others a Christmas.

``It is unfortunate we won't be able to get that little girl's dad out of jail,'' Crane said.Last year, the postal workers and their volunteers worked well past midnight, delivering gifts to the underprivileged who still hold out hope that a Santa does really exist.

Some of the letters are requests for food and money for transportation to get to school and work. Martin said the saddest letters come from kids who put their parents' and siblings' needs and wants ahead of their own.

`` `My mom needs a jacket and shoes' read one letter, so how could you not do anything about it?'' Crane said, tears welling again in her eyes.

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2 Photos

PHOTO (1 -- color) Stacia Crane wipes away a tear while reading a Dear Santa letter.

Hans Gutknecht/Daily News

(2 -- color) Postal workers have staunchly - and anonymously - answered Dear Santa letters over the years.

Hans Gutknecht/Daily News