SIUSLAW NEWS | L ETTERS
TO
S ANTA 2019
o
t
s
r
e
t
t
e
L
a
t
n
a
S
A 2019 keepsake section of
holiday wishes from students at
Siuslaw Elementary School
Secrets for writing letters to Santa Claus
A
t the tip of the North Pole
resides a jolly man who
collects letters from chil-
dren asking him to deliver all of
their hearts’ desires. Although
Santa Claus does a thorough job
of making sure children’s treats
are delivered on the same night,
sometimes he needs assistance
with reading and responding to
the thousands upon thousands
of letters sent to him each year.
That is why he often relies on an
extensive list of helpers to han-
dle much of his holiday corre-
spondence.
According to the Smithso-
nian, the practice of writing to
St. Nick dates back more than
150 years.
Early depictions of Santa
show him as a disciplinarian.
The first Christmastime San-
ta letters were actually sent by
Santa, rather than the other way
around. Such letters encour-
aged children to be good boys
and girls.
Eventually, an illustration by
Thomas Nast
depicted
“Santaclauss-
ville, N.P.” as
Santa’s ad-
dress, provid-
ing children
with a place
where they
could send
their corre-
spondences
to the big guy
in red.
The Uni-
versal Postal
Union, an in-
tergovernmental organization
that coordinates postal policies
across 192 member nations,
indicates that 1,350,000 letters
to Santa were sent by Canadi-
ans, while Americans sent more
than one million and Britains
mailed roughly 800,000 such
letters in 2012, the most recent
year from which figures are
available. To account for the
staggering number of letters
sent, various post offices and
postal programs were estab-
lished to help Santa with the
task of tackling children’s wish
lists.
In Canada, children can ad-
dress letters to Santa and use
the postal code H0H, 0H0. In
2016, the USPS instituted a
new letter-writing option that
enables parents or guardians to
include a personalized response
letter back to
children who
address let-
ters to Santa.
The package
can be post-
marked to:
North Pole
Postmark
Postmaster,
4141 Post-
mark Drive,
Anchorage,
AK 99530-
9998.
Many oth-
er letters to
Santa end up routing to various
post offices where thousands of
volunteer “elves” can adopt let-
ters and make children’s wishes
come true. A “Letters to Santa”
program enables children in se-
rious need to get items that can
help keep them safe and happy.
Parents may also investigate
a number of services that will
provide letters from Santa, Mrs.
Claus or elves for nominal fees.
These letters can be personal-
ized with details. Santa has even
gone high-tech with personal-
ized videos and pictures as well.
A quick web search can yield
the instructions on how pro-
spective helpers can get started.
Children can improve their
chances of letters being read
and received, with these tips.
• Identify who is writing the
letter and share some details
about your life.
• Make sure you’ve been nice
and well-behaved.
• Ask Santa how he has been
and engage in some polite con-
versation.
• Politely ask for the toys
you’d like. Understand that San-
ta is busy, so keep the list brief.
• Thank Santa in advance for
his kindness. Hopefully, he’ll
have time to reply.
• Write and mail the letter as
early as possible, as things tend
to get busy as Christmas nears.
— Courtesy Metro Creative
Connection