LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION TEENS HELP OUT SANTA WITH HIS MAIL.

Byline: Susan Abram Staff Writer

CANYON COUNTRY - One just wanted a pencil and eraser. Another asked for a car for a relative. Others said if only their mom, dad, or brother or sister could be there for Christmas, everything would be all right.

No matter how simple or complicated the requests, 50 of Santa's helpers stood ready with colored and sparkling markers to answer more than 600 letters from local children who wrote to Saint Nick this year.

Inside the Santa Clarita Sports Complex, Santa's staff of volunteers from the citywide Volunteens program responded as best as they could, advising the letter writers to continue to be good and patient, leave out some milk and cookies on Christmas Eve, and to enjoy the real meaning of Christmas.

Sean Tannehill, 15, had a dilly of a letter to answer. The boy who wrote wanted a Millennium Falcon spaceship from the Star Wars collection and ``a reindeer that poops out jelly beans.''

``P.S., I'm sorry, but none of my reindeer poops out jelly beans,'' Sean wrote back.

Adriana Hernandez, 14, received a letter from a girl who had asked Santa for a car.

``She wanted a car for her aunt, because the aunt has to work somewhere far away, and if she's late to her work, she'll be fired,'' Hernandez said.

All around the festive room, where Christmas music played, volunteers scribbled back notes as they chewed on pizza and answered questions like: ``Why does Santa have a beard?'' ``Why is Rudolph's nose red?''

``Kids who want something really bad will repeat it several times,'' said Nick Brodsky, 15. A child who wrote to him wanted a Nintendo GameCube ``times infinity!''

Lauren Kristensen, 19, said she does her best to offer responses that can make no promises. Santa, after all, tries his best, but can only do so much.

``You hope they get what they want, but you can't tell them they are going to get it,'' she said.

Other volunteers said they received letters from children that don't want anything, just a response from Santa. Some children want the real Valencia lifestyle: house, cars and a cell phone.

Throughout the year, members of Volunteens perform a series of community services, such as cleaning the city's park trails, and scrubbing off graffiti.

``The letter writing is like their reward for all they do throughout the year,'' said Susana Campbell, community services supervisor.

Each year, she picks up bundles of letters from the post office, for the Volunteens to answer. The U.S. Post office receives millions of letters addressed to the North Pole each year. Letters with requests that are dire are separated, and those interested can ``adopt'' the child for the holiday by sending presents or other necessities to the family directly, Campbell said.

Some Volunteens said writing back to the children was the most rewarding of all the projects they perform.

``I'm excited for them to read the letters back,'' said 14-year-old Nina Falcon.

Susan Abram, [phone]

susan.abram(at)dailynews.com

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3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) Above, Marci Fay, Derek Dashti and Omeed Mirbod craft responses to kids writing to Santa, three of the dozens of teen volunteers who helped the Canyon country Volunteen program this year. One such letter, below right, asks Santa for a ballerina costume and a puppy.

(3) Teens crowd around tables, all members of the Canyon Country's Volunteen program, answering letters to Santa.

John Lazar/Staff Photographer