SALT LAKE CITY — If you want your child’s letter to Santa Claus to receive a personal response, the U.S. Postal Service can help–complete with a North Pole postmark.
Letters From Santa is a service from the Postal Service that allows loved ones to write a response to children’s letters to Santa and have that response delivered in the most legitimate method possible, short of reindeer and a sleigh.
The USPS provides the following steps for those who would like to participate, and letters must be received by the Anchorage postmaster no later than December 15.
- Have your child write a letter to Santa and place it in an envelope addressed to: Santa Claus, North Pole.
- Later, when alone, open the envelope and write a personalized response.
- Insert the response letter into an envelope and address it to the child.
- Add the return address: SANTA, NORTH POLE, to the envelope.
- Affix a First-Class Mail stamp, such as a new Holiday Windows stamp, to the envelope.
- Place the complete envelope into a larger envelope — preferably a Priority Mail Flat Rate envelope — with appropriate postage and address it to:
North Pole Postmark
Postmaster
4141 Postmark Drive
Anchorage, AK 99530-9998
The post office encourages people to share the experience on social media using #LettersFromSanta. USPS also included these tips:
- To save paper, write Santa’s response on the back of your child’s letter. If you keep them together, your child will also be able to recall what he or she wrote.
- When responding as Santa, make the response as personal as possible by highlighting your child’s accomplishments over the past year, for example, helping around the house, receiving good grades in a particular subject at school or participating in community service activities.
- This is a great activity to do at Thanksgiving that the whole family can enjoy, including parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and other caregivers.
