Santa wrote back!
Thank goodness for Canada’s postal elves!
For our first Christmas in Canada, Canada Post went on strike. The strike lasted for nearly a month, from November 15th until December 17th.
My daughter, who is 8.5 years old and VERY excited about Christmas, was concerned that Santa would not be able to find her in her new home. So, she carefully crafted an adorable card out of construction paper, glue, and marker, to let Santa know about our move.
She wrote, “Dear Santa, I hope Twinkle come. To let you know me and my mom live in Canada now. From: Zoe. My liste —>” and she attached to the card an accordion fold pop-out Christmas list, taped in place with a little ribbon. FYI, Twinkle is our magical elf. And note the franglais with “liste” instead of list.
But how would we deliver her masterpiece letter to Santa if Canada Post was on strike?! All the post offices were closed and no mail was being delivered.
Canada Post has been replying to letters to Santa for decades, since three postal workers took the initiative in 1974 to start replying to letters addressed to Santa. In 1982, Canada Post started a nationwide Letters to Santa Program, and promised that Santa would reply to each and every letter sent to Santa’s official address:
Santa Claus
North Pole
H0H 0H0
Canada
And they did just that – about 1.5 million letters to Santa are delivered each year, and a team of 15,000 current and retired postal workers make sure each one is answered. And, this being Canada, he will reply in the language you write to him in. And the best part of all? No postage is required!
The postal workers may be on strike, but Santa still has a job to do.
But back to the strike. What to do?! Well, it turns out the local postal workers had set up a dedicated post box in front of the postal depot, which they kept out in the mornings only while they were picketing. We went out of our way to go there on a weekday morning, and my daughter was able to deliver her letter to Santa.
But I was not holding my breath that Santa would reply. Letters were still not being delivered to our apartment building, and because of that, I hadn’t even bothered to open our post box in weeks. But one day on the walk home from school with my daughter, I had a look, and lo and behold – it was a colorful envelope straight from the North Pole! My daughter was overjoyed.
