Steve Albini, along with his wife Heather Whinna, have delivered packages on Christmas day to needy families in the Chicago area. In a recent essay for the Huffington Post, Albini explained why he began the tradition.

He explained that years ago, Whinna had found a pile of letters at the post office addressed to Santa Claus from people in poverty. She showed one of the letters to Albini who was deeply moved by the sincerity of the writing, and claimed that it “changed something in me.” Albini and Whinna decided to answer the request, and delivered a package to the family. More and more deliveries followed each Christmas to families in similar need.

“These weren’t impish requests for toys or a new bike; mostly, they were desperate pleas from heads of households asking for help,” Albini said. “It was staggering.”

Though Albini is recognized as the producer for albums of landmark bands such as The Pixies and Nirvana, and the frontman in several bands, perhaps his greatest artistic achievement is one combined with a civic goal. Since 2002, Albini and Whinna, who works at the Second City theater group in Chicago, have held a 24-hour improv show to raise money for the package delivery.

This year, what Albini and Whinna have called the “Letters to Santa” show, featured such acts as Jeff Tweedy, Fred Armisen and Bonnie “Prince” Billy. In the essay, Albini talks about recruiting Tweedy and Armisen to assist in the delivery process.

Albini specifically targets the landlords in the piece as well, seeing them as enablers who prey on the less fortunate.

“The places the poor and afraid are forced to live–single rooms, dirt-floored basements, empty garages, and storage cubicles–makes me simultaneously shudder with both the indignity of their plight and rage that there is a class of man who could extort rent for such an existence,” Albini said.

Albini says he hasn’t had a conventional Christmas day in twenty years, and that he doesn’t miss it. He is happy to perform a service that assists people in need. Through the efforts of his Second City fundraiser and the willingness of fellow musical artists to do what they can to support him, it seems that Albini’s Christmas condition will continue for a long time.