Tradition of Writing Letters to Santa

For many years, there is a popular Christmas tradition in which children write letters to Santa, mainly advocating that they have been good in the past year and giving Santa a list of wishes and request for gifts that they want to receive, such as a bicycle, video games or a Lego set. The wish-list may include request of more than one gift too. There is a noticeable difference in the style of letter writing in boys and girls. Girls are often more considerate and wish something for others, are more polite and write longer letters and are more thoughtful and generous in their appreciation for all the hard work that Santa does, in their letters, than boys.

There are many postal services that allow children to send letters to Santa Claus. Some of them are even answered by volunteers or post office employees. In Canada, there is a special postal code for letters to Santa Claus. Since 1982, over 13,000 Canadian postal workers have volunteered to give answer to the mails for Santa and write responses. The address of Santa Claus is given as:

Santa Claus, North Pole, Canada - H0 H0 H0

Zeroes are used instead of 'O' to make up the characteristic laugh of Santa, to make the address consistent with the alternating letter-number format of all Canadian postal codes. Some charity workers, process requests of poor or sick children, and even try to fulfill the wishes they make in their letters to Santa. In Britain, there was a tradition that children use to burn their Christmas letters in the fire so that they can float up the chimney with the smoke and wind can then magically transport them to the North Pole, to Santa. Finland, which is believed to be the home of Santa, has already received over eight million letters for Santa and over 600,000 letters pour in every year from over 150 countries. The largest number of children who write to Santa are from Great Britain, Poland and Japan. In Finland, it is believed that Santa Claus lives in Korvatunturi but his official address is in Rovaniemi at the Arctic circle. Here, his address is given as: Santa Claus, Santa Claus Village, FIN-96930 Arctic Circle, Finland.