CFJC Today file photo

By Dylana Kneeshaw

IZZY MCQUEEN

After more than three decades, Santa’s Kamloops helper retires

Nov 25, 2020 | 5:11 PM

KAMLOOPS — If you have lived in the Kamloops area over the past few decades and have written a letter to Santa, odds are you have received a response from Izzy McQueen.

“They called me Mrs. Claus, I said, ‘No, I’m Santa’s Helper!'” After 34 years of letter writing, Izzy is putting the pen down. McQueen says the Santa letter program is now run through the Canada Post Heritage Club, so she and other helpers were told they would be retired.

“This would have been 35 (years). But that’s okay. That’s okay. I had a good 34 years,” she says. “It was lots of fun. We’d go out for dinner and everyone would say, ‘Oh, this kid said that, and this kid said that.'”

It’s been a quiet retirement. Along with letters, normally McQueen would be busy cheering on the Kamloops Blazers, volunteering with the Lions Club and making appearances on CFJC’s Midday show. But the pandemic hasn’t impacted her positive outlook.

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“I’d like to thank CFJC because they have been so good to me. That Tanya (Cronin) and that (Bill) O’Donovan, they were just terrific. No kidding,” reflects McQueen. “I just loved going and visiting her. And she came to my house I don’t know how many times. Started out with Sandy Heimlich-Hall. If I saw Broadcast Centre on the caller ID, I knew they were phoning me.”

The 88-year-old’s writing went around the globe, even getting responses from the British Royal family. McQueen has read thousands of Santa letters and says she enjoyed every second of writing back to curious children.

“They all said, ‘How can Santa fly around on that special night?’ I said, ‘You have to believe in magic.’ That’s what I put; what else can you say?”

It does take something special to write around 2,500 to 3,000 letters every year for more than three decades. McQueen also made sure to include kids, adults and anyone who wanted a Christmas message.

“I sent them to Australia, I sent them everywhere. And then the high school kids, too. They would say, ‘We believe in Santa; would you mind sending me a letter?’ So I’d send them one.”

The longstanding helper is still figuring out ways to keep busy in the absence of her yearly job for Santa Claus and hopes those who take on the task maintain the Christmas spirit the previous team of volunteers poured into their work.

“I just hope that those guys read every letter. Somebody said, ‘You guys don’t read every letter.’ I said, ‘We read every letter.’ We did, we read every letter.”

“But all in all, it was fun. It was really fun.”