Ms. Attack and I were discussing this story in which Santa’s mail was being delivered to a couple in New York City (New York City!). Ms. Attack then asked the reasonable question; “Why don’t they just readdress it to Santa at the North Pole?” because, of course, here in Canada you can write to Santa and he’ll write back, with the help of some of the elves employed at Canada Post. He even has his own postal code: H0H 0H0.
Is there a similar clever deal in the US or other countries? Finland maybe? Or is is just a Canadian thing?
My local post office always got the letters published in the newspaper, and encouraged adults to respond back to them. Unfortunately, this may be no more with the USPS budget cuts–we may no longer have a post office.
In the U.S. there are several post offices that receive the bulk of Santa’s mail, most notably those in Santa Claus, Indiana, and North Pole, Alaska. I don’t know how the post office in Alaska handles it, but the one in Indiana has “elves” that write back to many of the kids.
OP, if you watched the video on the NYTimes site (I don’t know if you are able to) it would have been more clear: they arranged to fulfill about half the letters because they felt it was the right thing to do, and gave the rest to a local post office to finish up.
They have no idea why anyone thinks that Santa lives in an apartment in Chelsea, a predominantly gay neighborhood in Manhattan. The letters came from a bunch of different geographic locations as well (dispelling the theory that the origin of the letters was, say, a single 1st-grade school teacher with a strange sense of humor).
President Johnson told a joke about the Post Office:
Lawrence O’Brien (Johnson’s postmaster) was looking through the letters from Santa and spied one that was especially sad. In it, a young boy explained how they needed money to buy food, his mother’s operation, etc. The boy asked for $100 to help pay for all of these expenses.
O’Brian, touched by the letter, mailed a $20 bill to the young boy from his office. To his surprise, a few weeks later, he received another “Santa letter” from the young boy:
Dear Santa:
Thank you for replying to my letter. The money you sent us has helped a great deal, but please don’t send it through the U.S. government the next time. By the time we got it, there was only $20 left.
President Johnson told a joke about the Post Office:
Lawrence O’Brien (Johnson’s postmaster) was looking through the letters from Santa and spied one that was especially sad. In it, a young boy explained how they needed money to buy food, his mother’s operation, etc. The boy asked for $100 to help pay for all of these expenses.
O’Brian, touched by the letter, mailed a $20 bill to the young boy from his office. To his surprise, a few weeks later, he received another “Santa letter” from the young boy:
Dear Santa:
Thank you for replying to my letter. The money you sent us has helped a great deal, but please don’t send it through the U.S. government the next time. By the time we got it, there was only $20 left.
In Germany (and Austria), it’s the Christkindl (christ child) that brings the presents, not Santa Claus (although St. Nikolaus fills the shoes on Dec. 6th with haselnuts, mandarines and other small gifts). And the Christchild obviously doesn’t live at the North Pole, but in Heaven. Therefore, german children write to Himmelsthür (Heaven’s door), Engelskirchen (Angel’s church) or to Himmelspforten (Heaven’s gate) in Austria. Postal workers and Volunteers answer the letters, sometimes with a form letter, sometimes personally, and use a special stamp. More here (in German).
If the child just writes “Christkind” or “Weihnachtsmann” (male Mr. Christmas, the counterpart to Santa Claus in Northern Germany) without proper address on the letter, and puts it in a postbox, the post office will deliver it to one of the special christmas post offices.
They can even do other languages for children from other countries, wiki says.
Hey Johnny L.A., that reminds me - how’s the move north working out. Are you getting up to Canada much?
Great, a US government program that provides sex offenders with a child’s address, name, age and a list of their hopes, dreams and toys they’d like. The road to hell is truly paved with good intentions.
Thanks for the clarification. Here are some theories about the address getting out there.
Well sure, that makes sense. I recall going to the Christkindlmarkt in Munich ages ago, but I did not realize that little baby Jesus was actually doing all the legwork in Germany. Thanks.
Giftgivers in Spain include the Magi (which were the default ones until recently) on January 6th, and Olentzero in the Basque areas, the Baby Jesus or the Shepherds country-wide on Christmas day. I know the Post has a service to read the letters and sometimes they channel them to Social Services or Goodwill; they do not answer them. This is not something they advertise widely, on account on not wanting to be the ones telling the little kids that the Magi are the parents.
Well who knows what “registered sex offender” means. The article doesn’t say much more. We usually assume it means a convicted child molester, because those are scary, but depending on the jurisdiction a whole slew of other offenses would require registration as a sex offender.
The French postal service also answers letters to Santa. There’s no specific postal code, it’s not like there are a lot of people going by this name (called the equivalent of “Father Christmas” in French). I’ve no clue what kind of answers they send.
Canada Post’s letters to Santa program had a bit of a problem a few years ago:
quote
Canada Post has issued a warning for parents to open their children’s letters from Santa before letting their children read them after an Orléans family received two letters containing lewd and inappropriate post scripts.
In the UK, Santa has a special message on the Royal Mail’s website to assist letter writers, and promises to respond to as many as possible. Apparently the address should be:
And you should enclose a stamp addressed envelope for a response. Just a head’s up for next year.