As Christmas approached, a Chelsea couple named Jim and Dylan mysteriously started receiving hundreds of letters from children addressed to Santa Claus. “Our address is on 22nd St, apartment no. 7, New York, NY, 10011. It’s not at all the North Pole,” Jim told the Times. “Kids think that Santa Claus lives in Chelsea.” Neither of them were able to figure out why these letters, which came from all over the state and all five boroughs, were showing up in their mailbox. (Probably Mary Kate & Ashley’s Manhattan Christmas Mystery, right?) Overwhelmed by the emotion and expectation, but without the resources to fulfill all those Christmas wishes themselves, Jim decided to make Intel’s cold heart swell with joy by passing out the wish lists to co-workers and on Facebook, managing to send the presents requested in half of the four hundred plus letters to Santa. At one point, Dylan expresses his reservations about granting some wishes, while others were left ignored, but tells Jim, “You don’t think about it, you just give. That’s been your way and I love that about you.”
Everything about this video, from the couple’s struggle with making good on an unexpected obligation, to their generosity of spirit, to their festively decorated brownstone, to the ambient Apple products in the background, could not have been better cast as an only-in–New York modern-day Christmas miracle. Spoiler alert: Kids, ignore this post. Those Dora the Explorer T-shirts are totes from the North Pole. You were such a good girl!!!!
Now, like everyone else, Daily Intel is going to celebrate the War on Christmas by hitting the eggnog. We’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming Sunday evening. Have the happiest holidays ever, you heart-melting Chelsea elves.
Miracle on 22nd Street [NYT]
