Last Monday we had no Santa mail. Everything we received the week before was done. Then on Tuesday, the mail started flooding in. There was a Santa Parade in Vancouver and lots of local and out of town mail was received. Unfortunately some people don't put their return address on their letters.
Elf Donna received this one. As it doesn't have a return address so I can share it:
We get letters from adults who are just lonely. I got a lovely card from a teen in Richmond who told me she lost her father. She shared her feelings and it was very sad. She never asked for anything for Christmas, she never even mentioned Christmas. She just poured her heart out to me and I had to grab a Kleenex. We don't answer these, we send them to the Human Resources Department at Canada Post and they reply.
I got another letter from the interior who wanted his mom to become pretty! Another child asked if there were penguins at the North Pole. One of the volunteers had a sticker of a penguin so we attached the sticker and told her penguins are only at the South Pole. Between all the volunteers we came up with many animals Santa sees at the North Pole! One sad address "under the overpass on Hwy 1 at *** Road". Obviously a homeless child! We received a letter from a school in Lithuania! That's the first European school we've ever received. Europe letters usually go to Eastern Canada. We get Asia Pacific letters.
This letter was sent to Canada Post Head Office to thank us for the letter their son received. They included the picture of a young boy very pleased with the letter. This elf did a great job in answering the letter.
A shout out to the teachers. Every year Canada Post sends instructions to every elementary school with instructions on how to get a poster for the classroom along with a deadline. We ask for a class list and we print out every child's name on the poster and return it. One day we got 22 school replies and only 8 had a class list. We have a letter we send back and hopefully next year they send us the right information. If you know a teacher please pass this on as it's so frustrating!
Day care's continue to ask us to send letters to the children's home. First, that information should never be shared. Second, they may have already sent a letter and now they get two? If you know a day care worker, please ask them for a class list only and we will return a lovely poster they can put up for the children.
This is my 17th year answering Santa mail. It's so rewarding. Unfortunately only Canada Post Employees/Retirees or Heritage Club members can reply to letters.
I don't know if we will be able to answer every letter on time but we will try. If everyone sent them before the deadline they would get a reply before Christmas. We have post cards we send to late letters so if they put a return address on their envelope, they will receive a reply.
