Documentary captures the holiday wishes of children

“Your support reinforces the value of compassion and community that I try to pass on to my children.”

“With the help of Globe Santa, my children will receive a little miracle to light up the holidays.”

“Thank you for every year you helped keep the faith in Santa Claus strong.”

“This kindness IS a gift.”

But this year, the Boston Globe Foundation is looking to expand Globe Santa’s impact by encouraging more people to reach out and more people to ask for help. offer help by donating to the Globe Santa fund. To raise awareness, the foundation has leveraged the creative firepower of Digitas, a Boston-based advertising agency, and ELEMENT Productions, a Boston-based video content company.

Both Digitas and ELEMENT have donated their time and resources, and the collaboration has skyrocketed: filmmakers, editors, musicians, artists, location scouts, Globe employees, family members and dozens of other creative collaborators have also volunteered to tell the Globe Santa story in the form of a multiplatform video advertising campaign called “A journey of a letter.”

Essentially, “A Letter’s Journey” is a one-minute documentary the central characters are the letters that set the cogs of the enormous Globe Santa machine in motion every year.

We hear the voices behind the letters (“My mom just needs a little help this year”). We see the postal workers who pick them up, and the Globe employees who read them, in detail: in 2023, about 17,000 letters came to the Globe. We see employees carefully packing the toys into boxes and sealing them with Globe Santa tape, and a parka-clad delivery person who bears more than a passing resemblance to Santa Claus dropping off a package on the doorstep. It was all filmed on one sweltering hot 12-hour day in August, at the Globe’s offices in Boston and in a two-family home in Chelsea.

“All of our creatives were eager to help – we had over 100 scripts submitted, with so many great ideas,” says Danny Streadbeck, VP creative director at Digitas, whose clients include brands such as Crocs, CVS, Aetna, Dunkin’ and iRobot. .

“They were so excited to be part of something that could make a difference once they saw Globe Santa’s impact on the community,” said Jessica Bergstresser, VP creative director. “How so many children have hopes and wishes and just want to be heard, and how the program meets all these wishes.”

But it was one idea in particular that immediately felt right: the concept of the journey of a letter, from an expressed hope to an answered hope.

“We looked at a whole bunch of letters, fifty or more, and there was so much truth, insight and real emotion attached to them,” says Tim Cahill, copywriter and associate creative director at Digitas. He and art director and associate creative director Dana Haddad came up with the idea for ‘A Letter’s Journey’.

“There are things in the letters that are underlined, things that are misspelled, or that say, ‘You are the reason my son still believes in Santa Claus.’ So we thought, ‘Let’s show how much a letter goes through to reach the Globe, and then the response. The help. The present. ”

“The written word is incredibly honest and sincere,” says Joan Cassin, who directed the video for ELEMENT. “It’s not typed out. There is no backspace. You really get a sincere message from someone, like old-fashioned communication. And – I get choked up saying this – when you think of holiday letters, you usually think of a Christmas card. Most of the time you don’t need any help.”

“A big part of this project was leveraging artistry,” says Eran Lobel, ELEMENT’s founder in 1998; it is now an award-winning, full-service video production company that produced, edited and directed the video.

“For us, it’s really important to create memorable videos, and the core and ethos of this company is to be philanthropic,” Lobel said. “We do a lot of work for non-profit organizations and find it very creative. It allows us to spread our wings in a creative way. We see production as a team sport and really enjoyed the collaboration with Digitas.”

This creative impulse is reflected in the kaleidoscopic image of the letters as they fall across a table, the sweet chorus of children’s voices reading the letters, the way the background recedes to heighten the impact of the letters, in the tight editing by Chris from ELEMENT. Santo, and in the haunting but hopeful music.

“There were no sleigh bells, no chimes,” says producer Jack Bradley, CEO of HiFi Project, who, along with his team of artists, produced the custom music. Bradley is a self-described “homer” from Boston who grew up in Braintree.

“If you get too sad, people don’t want to watch; There is enough fear in the world right now. At first you hear these minor chords, but as soon as you introduce that the Globe is going to help, we shift and we only hear major chords. You have the feeling that this will turn out okay.”

The project had many challenges, including obtaining film permits in time and finding a home in a town that would exude “that signature New England vibe,” says ELEMENT executive producer Kristen Kearns, whose husband, educator Ed Kearns, Santa Claus played. -like delivery boy in Chelsea in the video. “But I really love how it turned out. Every time I look at it it fills my heart.”

“What was great was that everyone gave their time. Eager. Eager,’ said Susanne Macarelli, creative director of Boston Globe Media Group. The video, she said, “really hits you in the chest.”

Bill Connolly The executive director of Globe Santa said the program is “I am so grateful for the creativity, ingenuity, speed and time everyone has put into this community work.”

“We are trying to grow our donor base and make sure families who need this help know we are here. position to respond to any requests we receive for gift assistance,” Connolly said. “We will make it work as long as we have the resources and the energy to do it. We would like to help any family that needs help.”

For 69 years, Globe Santa, a program of the Boston Globe Foundation, has provided gifts to children in need during the holidays. Please consider donating by phone, mail or online at globesanta.org.