LifestyleHoliday

Actions

Stuart couple helps keep 30-year Christmas tradition alive

LeBlanc family home provides place for children to leave letters for Santa
George and Charlene LeBlanc, Stuart couple's house at Christmastime 2020
Posted at 7:09 PM, Dec 01, 2020
and last updated 2020-12-01 19:09:47-05

STUART, Fla. — Santa Claus has a couple of elves in Stuart.

It's a 30-year tradition complete with more than 30,000 lights, 50 Christmas decoration blow-ups and a mailbox to send letters straight to the North Pole.

One couple in Stuart is keeping the Christmas magic alive by giving Santa a helping hand.

George and Charlene LeBlanc have been decorating their home since the 1990s and it's grown each year.

"The Christmas magic is still alive for them and it makes it so for us as well," Charlene LeBlanc said of the children who leave letters for Santa.

This is the third year they have been doing Santa letters.

Letters to Santa mailbox closeup of George and Charlene LeBlanc's Stuart home
Children can send their letters to Santa Claus outside the LeBlanc home.

"This started out with us thinking that that Santa might get half a dozen or a dozen letters in his mailbox," Charlene LeBlanc said.

The family believes sharing the magic of Christmas is especially important in 2020. The LeBlancs were unsure if their Christmas tradition was going to happen this year, but with the help of family and friends, they pulled off the Christmas light show.

"Still shows a little bit of normalcy during this pandemic that, I think, some of us lost that," Danielle Morris said.

Besides, the LeBlancs live on Silverbell Avenue.

"How do you not do this when you live on that street?" Charlene LeBlanc said.

Charlene LeBlanc reads a child's letter to Santa
Charlene LeBlanc reads one of the letters to Santa left by children outside her Stuart home.

Morris said the tradition has caught on and is so well-liked that "stems now into Port St. Lucie."

"They ask some of the most fun things, and then this one, this one here," Charlene LeBlanc said, holding one of the letters to Santa. "And I just glimpsed at it. It says, 'Dear Santa, I like your mustache. I also like your eyeballs.' He doesn't ask for anything. He just is letting us know that he enjoys this."