Did You Know Canadian Children Can Write to Santa and He Will WRITE BACK???

When I was a child I wrote to Santa and got a letter back! I remember how special I felt to get a letter addressed to me in the mail, and by Santa Claus himself!

Did you know that Canada Post helps Santa answer his mail? Here are some stats on the program:

• Celebrating 30 years as a national program helping Santa reply to his mail.
• Some 10,000 volunteers – postal elves – help Santa with this monumental task!
• Santa receives more than 1 million letters (1.225 million in 2010), and 43,000 emails every year!
o That’s 2,000 mailbags full of mail!
• Santa receives letters in more than 30 languages (including Braille) – he answers each one in the language it was written in!
• The Canada Post Santa Letter-writing Program is an employee-led volunteer initiative – employees give 190,000 hours of volunteer time – supporting literacy by encouraging children to write letters.• There have now been two generations of both letter writers and postal elves involved in this holiday tradition – children who wrote those first letters are now helping their own children write to Santa.
• To protect Santa’s mail, only Canada Post employees – current and retired – are allowed to handle Santa’s mail.
• Santa’s Corner – Santa’s online post office – is visited a quarter of a million times a season.

It's so EASY to write to Santa and and it's great practice for your child to learn how to address a letter, especially in this day and age of social media. A few more notes on the program:

• Santa has several versions of his letter (to ensure two children in the same house receive a different letter)• Santa also has a special ‘After Christmas’ letter he sends when a child’s letter is received too close to Christmas for a response to be delivered on time
• Information about the program is mailed to more than 3,000 libraries, 4,000 daycare providers and 9,000 schools.
• It takes a lot of paper (100% post-consumer recycled paper!) to manage Santa’s mail – 1.6 million pieces of letterhead and 1.7 million envelopes!
• SANTA’S ELVES, NEVER, EVER, SAY THEY ANSWER SANTA’S MAIL. THEY ALWAYS TELL THE TRUTH, NOTING ONLY THAT THEY HELP SANTA ANSWER THE MAIL!

So How Do You Write to Santa?

Have your child write his or her letter and feel free to decorate the letter but no glitter please! Put the letter in an envelope and address it using the address below. Make sure you include your COMPLETE RETURN ADDRESS so Santa can reply.

SANTA CLAUS
NORTH POLE H0H 0H0
CANADA

I recommend having your children write real letters but if you wish emails can be sent to Santa at this  website:  http://www.canadapost.ca/santascorner


*Disclosure: I did not receive any form of compensation for this post. I shared the information because I wanted to. See my Disclosure Policy for more information.