Strike at Canada Post: Santa Claus would not answer children’s letters this year

Although it will take time to stabilize operations as Canada Post workers have returned to work, “letters to Santa are treated with special attention,” assured Canada Post on Wednesday.

Postal teams can count on special technology to help them in their special mission of delivering mail to the North Pole.

“In our establishments, readers are configured to locate letters to Santa that are identified by the HOH OHO postal code. This is what allows us to deliver these letters directly to the North Pole. And we will deliver all letters to Santa Claus posted no later than December 23,” explains Canada Post.

But the damage would be done: it is very likely that Santa Claus will not have time to respond to letters received by post this year.

But, Santa Claus “is really looking forward to reading all these letters,” it says.

Canada Post’s Santa Letter Program was affected by the four-week strike by members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW).

Each year, Canada Post employees and retirees lend a hand to the elves, on a voluntary basis, to respond to each of the letters sent to Santa Claus. The program delivers up to 1.5 million letters from little Canadians to the North Pole each year.

Volunteers, with the help of elves, can respond to letters in 39 different languages, including Braille.

Last year, 1.4 million children wrote to Santa. The letters come mainly from young Canadians, but also from children from elsewhere in the world.