Millions of children who wrote a letter to Santa Claus will soon be receiving a response.
Armies of postal staff, often referred to within the industry as "elves", are co-opted to answer these letters in the run-up to Christmas. Many volunteer for the task.
In Lapland, Santa's official post office is to be found in Rovaniemi, a town with a population of 35,000 on the edge of the Arctic Circle. In 2009, the office answered 600,000 letters mailed from 198 different countries, with Togo the latest country to be added to the list. "Even in the age of the Internet, Father Christmas receives more letters in the course of a year than e-mails" say Riitta, Katja and Auli, Santa's little helpers. "We welcome 300,000 visitors a year, with 70,000 in December alone", they add.
In Canada, in 2009 a thousand postal elves answered 1.1 million letters and 39,500 e-mails from children in 30 different languages, including Braille. Canada Post has its own special address for Santa, complete with an appropriately jovial postcode: H0H 0H0!
This year in Brazil, the Post has formed partnerships with public schools and social institutions to encourage children to write letters and make use of postcodes and stamps. In 2009, Correios answered almost two million childrens' letters, and spread some seasonal cheer by donating 414,000 Christmas gifts to some of Brazil's neediest citizens.
In Germany, Santa's main post office is situated in the city of Himmelpfort (literally "gateway to heaven"), in Brandenburg state. In 2009, Deutsche Post's team of elves sent out replies to 280,000 letters addressed to the Weihnachtsmann in 17 languages.
In France, by 6 December, a team of 60 postal elves had already sent out reply cards in response to over half a million letters and 80,000 e-mails from children in 102 countries.
Encouraged by family and friends, children the world over write Father Christmas a letter or draw him a picture. And if they remember to include their name and address, they are sure to receive a reply from the mythical recipient.
Through initiatives such as this, Posts are helping to promote the cause of literacy. A letter to Santa is often a child's first experience of correspondence. Written and sent with the help of a parent or teacher, the child learns about the structure of a letter, salutations, and the use of an address and postcode.
The great majority of these letters are addressed to the North Pole, Greenland, Finland or Lapland.