For six decades Globe Santa has delivered presents to deserving children and families in the Greater Boston region, thanks to the tens of millions in donations from people who have come to understand the program’s mission. Without their contributions, the Christmas mornings of hundreds of thousands of kids would have been joyless.

Donated funds are used to purchase the quality books and toys and other gifts that fill Santa’s sleigh each year. The delivery of the packages filled with those presents (there will be almost 20,000 stops this year) is a challenging task that takes organization to another level, and the Globe’s drivers and the US Postal Service have proved to be up to the job year after year.

Delivering large boxes to 179 zip codes across Greater Boston is an expensive enterprise, and the Postal Service works closely with the Globe’s transportation staff to keep costs as low as possible while ensuring that every package reaches its destination in time for Christmas.

The Postal Service always hires extra help nationwide to handle the Christmas rush, and locally that help extends to working directly with the Globe Santa operation. While that creates extra work, said Stephen Doherty of the Postal Service, “it’s what we do, and we’re glad to do it. It’s such a great program. It gives our employees a lot of satisfaction.’’

Families who write to Globe Santa verify their addresses, and they sometimes include special instructions for delivery. After the Globe’s drivers take on the packages from the Globe Direct warehouse in Millbury and deliver them to dozens of post office sites, usually in the wee hours of the morning, families are notified via e-mail so that they can track the process.

“It involves a lot of creativity,’’ said Globe distribution director Kevin McGue. “Every year we make it our mission to save Globe Santa as much money as possible, and we’ve been very successful. The more money we save, the more money goes to the toys, and that’s what it’s all about.’’

Still, Globe Santa receives a fair number of calls each year from people whose packages haven’t arrived when they were expected to. When that happens, Tammy McFarland, head of family requests, teams up with Wendy Mullen at the Postal Service’s central office in Boston to fix the problems.

“Wendy and I are in constant communication,’’ said McFarland. “Lots of little problems come up each year, but everyone involved with the program is committed to solving them.’’

McFarland regularly fields calls from post office clerks reporting that packages haven’t arrived. She’ll then find a family’s information in the Globe Santa system and call to tell the parents that their box is waiting for pickup.

Postal workers “treat Globe Santa packages specially,’’ said McFarland. “Whenever I interact with someone at the Postal Service, there’s a mutual feeling that every child deserves to have that package delivered.’’

For her part, Mullen said that postal carriers “welcome’’ their Globe Santa deliveries. “Everybody here at the post office is really supportive of Globe Santa,’’ she said. “Each year we do whatever we can to improve our system.’’

Kathleen McKenna can be reached at kmck66@verizon.net.