Holiday cheer fills island's 'North Pole'

Santa Claus has a deputy on Grand Manan, with Ashley Harris operating a satellite office of his North Pole headquarters at her home in North Head. Now in its third year, the project has grown from a simple mailbox in the yard for letters to Santa into a little Christmas wonderland with a variety of activities that bring joy to the whole community.

"I can't take full credit" for the idea, Harris says. Three years ago her mother, Lianne Harris, wanted to do something for island children at their home, with decorations and her father, Rex, playing Santa. "They just wanted to make everyone happy," Harris recalls. "They were two of the happiest, most loving people, the best people I ever knew," finding joy in simple things and doing things for others. Sadly, they never had the opportunity, as Rex passed away that November and Lianne the following May. That Christmas, as she navigated the grief of losing "the best parents, [who] made me believe in everything," she suggested to fiancé Pat Cronk that they do what her parents had wanted, in their honour. He said, "Just tell me what you need."

There was a postal strike that year, so for children worried about how Santa would get their letters, she decided to put a little mailbox in the yard. She put word out on social media, and soon the box was full. Harris wrote replies to the letters for children to return and pick up, and the ideas began snowballing, with the addition of "reindeer food" and treat bags. The next year, they added more decorations to the house in a mission to create "a place that feels like the North Pole" for children to drop their letters.

The "North Pole" has now expanded into a shed that they built in 2024. She didn't want letters to get wet or the weather to deter anyone from coming. With a background of Christmas music and sparkling lights, children can now visit Mrs. Claus' bakery for cookies, write their letters at Santa's desk and decorate the envelope with stamps and stickers, pick up activity pages and get an "honorary elf" certificate, and have a peek at the "Elf‑O‑Matic" machine, an elaborate reconstruction of part of Santa's toy assembly line. Children can also put together their own bag of "reindeer food": raisins, cracker‑crumb "oats," sugar and glitter -- to be sprinkled outside on Christmas Eve, with the sparkly red "Rudolph glitter" in particular to help the reindeer spot their destinations. "Kids love it," she says. "They have the best time with it." Overlooking the space is a large photo of Rex and Lianne Harris, who no doubt would be delighted.

Last year, there were 250 letters to Santa. Harris reads every one. Because she knows who many of the children are, she can write personalized replies, in which Santa comments on someone's success in school or sports. Some might be daunted by letters from children with problems, but Harris says she particularly likes those. "There's a lot of me" in the replies, as well as her parents' huge hearts. She says, "I want kids to know even somebody like Santa Claus can struggle. Even when we're struggling, it gets better. I want kids to know they're not alone."