The
Toronto Sun was one of the first to report on parents being outraged that their children were being charged 61 cents for mailing a letter to Santa. A second occurrence transpired this past weekend, but Canada Post insists that it was all a mix-up.
Canada’s mail service has promised that all of its workers will be reminded that the 30-year-old policy of free delivery for letters sent to the North Pole will remain intact and that it has not been changed this year – postage stamps are never required for any letter sent to postal code HOH OHO.
According to
NewsTalk1010, the stamp requirement was a brand new policy, but the letter would still be mailed without proper postage. Children can even write Santa an email this year via the
Santa’s Corner website.
It was noted in the
Sun report that the Canada Post website had made a reference to “be sure to affix sufficient postage” when mailing letters to Santa. By Monday, the note was removed and Director of communications Anick Losier told the outlet that reminders will be issued immediately.
“Letters to Santa will not be returned if no stamps. Santa's post office and #CanadaPost encourages postage, but mostly, a return address,”
tweeted Losier on Monday.
Canada Post
published a news release late last month that said more than one million letters are mailed each year from Canada and that since the letters are piling up, Mrs. Claus will be helping out this year.
“In fact, tonight Santa and I plan to nestle in front of the fire with a warm cup of milk and cookies and reply to a batch of letters,” wrote Mrs. Claus. “Writing a letter is so much fun. I know you like it too – we’ve been getting letters since July from boys and girls from all over the world. You know, of course, that Santa is fluent in all languages, so whatever the language you want to write to him in, he can reply!”
The Canada Post Santa Letter-Writing Program is led by volunteers who are current and retired employees donating more than 190,000 hours of their time in order to encourage children to write, understand correct addressing and learn to read.
