Posti redirects millions of letters to Santa this Christmas
Every year millions of letters intended for Santa Claus reach the wrong destination because they are addressed to the North Pole. Finland’s postal service Posti is launching a campaign this Christmas to correct the error and make sure the messages arrive at their proper destination in Rovaniemi inside the Arctic Circle.
The effort includes the placement of special Santa mailboxes in selected cities so that letters can be posted directly for transport to Santa Claus’ Main Post Office before Christmas.
Rovaniemi is the only city recognised as Santa’s official hometown. Earlier this year the European Union’s Intellectual Property Office upheld the city’s registered trademark “The Official Hometown of Santa Claus”.
Posti is focusing the North Pole Redirect initiative on the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada, where the North Pole remains a common address. The postal operator is also asking postal services worldwide to forward any letters still addressed to the North Pole onward to the Arctic Circle in Finland. MaltaPost already collects and sends thousands of letters each year as an example of this cooperation.
For Posti every letter to Santa forms part of a shared global tradition that deserves to be preserved and supported.
“People write to Santa to be heard. Their hopes and wishes matter to us. By our estimate, millions of letters to Santa are misdirected every year, and we don't want a single wish lost along the way. That's why this Christmas we're making it easier for more letters to reach Santa,” says Jenni Ihatsu, Vice President, Brand and Marketing at Posti, Finland’s Postal Service.
Santa Claus’ Main Post Office functions as an official year-round branch of Finland’s postal service and forms part of the worldwide Christmas tradition.
Six postal elves staff the office throughout the year. The team expands to around twenty people during the busiest Christmas period.
The post office receives approximately 500,000 letters annually. Peak daily arrivals can reach 30,000 letters. More than 25 million letters from over 200 countries have arrived at the office over the years.
“On any given day, we might be reading letters from Poland, Taiwan, Italy, Japan or Finland. Each one of them brings a small piece of the world to our door, in different languages, drawings and stories. My elf team and I never stop marveling at them, and we're ready for more,” says Katja Tervonen, Chief Elf at Santa Claus’ Main Post Office.
Special mailboxes will stand in Leicester Square, London from 4 to 8 November, Domino Park, New York from 18 to 22 November, and Sankofa Square, Toronto from 2 to 6 December. Letters may also be posted to country-specific addresses. In the UK: North Pole Redirect, P.O. Box 2662, 275 New North Road, London, N1 7AA. In the US: North Pole Redirect, P.O. Box 5044, 697 Grand St, Brooklyn, NY 11211. In Canada: North Pole Redirect, P.O. Box 427B, 2967 Dundas St. W., Toronto, ON M6P 1Z2. Standard local postage is required for the post-office-box addresses.
Letters collected by 15 December will be transported to Lapland and hand-delivered to Santa at the Main Post Office. A social-media challenge invites participants to share photos or videos with the hashtag #northpoleredirect for a chance to win a trip to Rovaniemi and the post office.
The official address remains Santa Claus’ Main Post Office, Arctic Circle, FINLAND.
