PORT ST. LUCIE, Florida (WPBF) — Victoria Rodriguez doesn’t drive a sleigh.
But make no mistake, Rodriguez is Santa Claus.
Rodriguez has been a postal carrier for the last six years.
For the last year, she’s been delivering mail in Port St. Lucie.
Two weeks ago, Rodriguez went to deliver mail to a home on her route and instead found letters already in the mailbox.
They were letters to Santa Claus.
That moment is when Rodriguez decided she would be Santa Claus.
She went out and bought the gifts on the children’s lists.
The children and their parents were surprised, to say the least.
“This is the holiday spirit,” said the children’s mother, Briana Nielsen. “To see the holiday spirit still alive, it’s really beautiful.”
“I didn’t things like this still happened anymore,” said the children’s father, Alex Nielsen. “And I thought it was really cool.”
Rodriguez spent some time watching the children open their presents and talking to their parents, but then she had to go.
She had a lot of other packages to deliver.
At this time of year, the days for a postal carrier are very long.
But for Rodriguez, they are also very bright.
“The children are the ones that make the magic keep going,” she said. “Just to see their smile, and they’re happy, that makes me happy.”