Amidst all of the hoopla of Christmas Eve I failed to realize mail carriers were still hard at work yesterday. Frankly, I was shocked when I saw our mail lady drive up and fill our mailbox with a bunch of envelopes. My daughter was even more surprised and not because the mail lady actually showed up, but because of what she placed inside our mailbox.
Three weeks ago my 3-year-old daughter wrote a letter to Santa. It was more drawing than writing, but since Santa knows the language of all children I figured he could make out what she was trying to say. My daughter used every crayon in her 64-count box to decorate her construction paper note to Mr. Claus. When she was done she carefully folded and placed the letter in an envelope, licked it and handed it to me to address. I figured “Santa Claus, North Pole” would do the trick and off we went to the post office.
Our local post office had set up a 5-foot tall cardboard gingerbread house where kids could drop off their letters to the big guy. My daughter was thrilled to slide her colorful note in the gumdrop bordered mail slot. So much so that she wanted to place the envelopes containing my credit card and electric bills into Santa’s gingerbread home as well. (I’m sure Santa would have loved that—-Dear Santa, all I want for Christmas is for you to foot these bills…)
As the weeks went by my daughter stopped asking whether or not I thought Santa received her letter. Which is why when the postal carrier stopped by yesterday and I braved the single digit wind chills to collect the mail both my daughter and I gasped when we saw an envelope with her name on it and the return address: North Pole.
She ripped open that envelope faster than a speeding cheetah. Inside was a three-paragraph letter from Father Christmas himself. It not only thanked her for her letter, but also detailed what Rudolph was getting for Christmas (a scooter) and what he and Mrs. Claus would be doing on December 26th (eating cookies and drinking hot chocolate in front of the fireplace).
My daughter ran through the house waving her letter in the air laughing and hollering about her Christmas Eve good fortune.
“See Mama… Santa didn’t forget,” she stated very matter-of-factly.
“He sure didn’t,” I replied as I grabbed my camera to document my daughter holding her very first letter from Santa.
It was a scene that will remain with me for years to come and made me wonder if the elves at the post office realize what a difference a single piece of paper can make to a young child.
I did some research and learned that according to the Universal Postal Union, more than 6 million letters were addressed to “Santa Claus” or “Father Christmas” and dropped off at post offices around the world this year alone.
The postal union, which represents 191 countries, says Santa has over five million helpers around the globe that answer his mail and deliver the millions of responses.
Last year Finland received Santa letters from kids in 150 countries. Meanwhile, the U.S. Postal Service has been answering Santa’s letters since 1912. And in Canada, Santa has his own zip code — HOH OHO.
Did your children send a letter to Santa this year?
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