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How to write a letter to Santa, and where to send it

Christmas magicHow to read this bookReads aloud in 7 minutesRead it to a childAdded to the book

A child in a red coat posting a letter into an old red pillar mailbox in the snow.
PlateA child in a red coat posting a letter into an old red mailbox in the snow.

Write to Santa the way you would write to a friend: say hello, tell him about your year and what you hope for, and draw him a picture if you like. Then ask a grown-up to help you send it to the North Pole, through one of the post offices that help Santa with his mail.

True story

At a glance

  • In the United States: USPS Operation Santa, Santa, 123 Elf Road, North Pole, 88888, with a First-Class stamp and a return address; letters postmarked by in
  • In Canada: Santa Claus, North Pole, H0H 0H0, Canada, with a return address and no stamp needed inside Canada; letters by in
  • In Germany: Himmelpfort, the country’s biggest Christmas post office
  • Checked: October 2026; the post offices set new dates each year

How to write it

  • Start with “Dear Santa.”
  • Tell him something about your year: a thing you learned, or a kind thing you did.
  • Ask him a question. Perhaps about the reindeer?
  • Tell him what you hope for at Christmas, and maybe something you wish for someone else.
  • Draw him a picture, and sign it with love.

Write in your neatest hand, so every word is easy to read. Then a grown-up can help with the envelope, the stamp and the return address, and post it in good time, because December is the North Pole’s busiest month.

The post offices that help

True story

In the United States. In 1912 the head of the US Post Office, Frank Hitchcock, let local post offices invite postal workers to open children’s letters to Santa and answer them. That was the start of what is now called USPS Operation Santa. Later, charities, companies and ordinary people joined in, writing back and sending small gifts. In 2017 the program went online, starting in New York, and today anyone in the US can choose a child’s letter and answer it. Letters go to Santa, 123 Elf Road, North Pole, 88888, with a First-Class stamp, and the Postal Service takes any personal details out of a letter before it posts it online. It also asks writers to keep their letters flat: glitter and glued-on macaroni can stop a letter from being put online. The program’s own site has the full instructions and this year’s key dates.

In Canada. Children write to Santa Claus, North Pole, H0H 0H0, Canada, and the letter needs no stamp inside Canada. Canada Post has counted the letters reaching that address since 1982, and more than a million arrive each year. Its volunteers, working and retired, have helped answer letters in more than 30 languages, and in braille too, and children outside Canada can write as well and get a reply in the same language as their letter. Canada Post’s page has this year’s dates.

In Germany. The village of Himmelpfort, in Brandenburg, has Germany’s biggest Christmas post office, answering around 300,000 wish lists a year from dozens of countries. Deutsche Post tells how it began, in 1984, in what was then East Germany: the local postwoman found two letters to the Weihnachtsmann, the Christmas Man, from children in Saxony and Berlin, and answered them herself. It is one of seven Christmas post offices in Germany; the others include Himmelpforten, a different town, in Lower Saxony, and Engelskirchen.

Christmas magic

And at the North Pole, Santa reads every one.

On Christmas Eve

True story

Tracking Santa began by accident in 1955, when a newspaper ad for Sears printed the wrong phone number and children’s calls reached the US air-defense command in Colorado. Its director of operations, Colonel Harry Shoup, played along: he had his radar team watch for Santa and tell the children where he was. NORAD, the command that took its place, has kept the tradition every Christmas Eve since.

Christmas magic

So on Christmas Eve, once the last letters are read and the sleigh is packed, families everywhere can follow Santa’s journey around the world, and then it is time for bed.

Read it to a child

Reads aloud in a minute

“Dear Santa…” That’s how a letter to Santa begins. Tell him about your year. Ask him about the reindeer. Draw him a picture. Then a grown-up can help you send it, all the way to the North Pole.

True story

Quick answers

What is Santa’s address in the United States?

Santa, 123 Elf Road, North Pole, 88888, with a First-Class stamp. The US Postal Service’s Operation Santa receives the letters, and in it asked for them to be postmarked by .

What is Santa’s postal code in Canada?

H0H 0H0. The full address is Santa Claus, North Pole, H0H 0H0, Canada, and no stamp is needed inside Canada.

When did the post office start answering letters to Santa?

In the United States, in 1912, when the head of the Post Office, Frank Hitchcock, let local post offices invite postal workers to answer them.

How did NORAD start tracking Santa?

By accident, in 1955: a Sears newspaper ad printed the wrong phone number, and children’s calls reached the US air-defense command in Colorado, where Colonel Harry Shoup had his radar team tell the children where Santa was.

More: Santa’s reindeer, how many days until Christmas, the Santa chapter, the North Pole and NORAD’s Santa tracker.

Where our facts come from

  1. USPS Operation Santa, "Writing to Santa" (How to Write a Letter), "Write Santa's mailing address on the envelope: Santa, 123 Elf Road, North Pole, 88888"; "Include your full name and return address … in the upper left corner"; "Attach a First-Class stamp"; "Keep your creation flat. Glitter or glued-on objects like macaroni and beads can prevent your letter from being uploaded to the site"
  2. USPS Operation Santa, "How It Works", STEP 1, Write ("We remove any personal details and post them on our site"); "Key 2026 Dates" ("Dec 5, Last Call for Letter Writers"; the dates are given for 2026)
  3. USPS Operation Santa, "FAQs", The letter-writers' deadline answer ("Letters must be postmarked by this date")
  4. USPS, "Celebrate 100 Years of the Letters to Santa Program and the U.S. Postal Service", Postal Bulletin 22349 (2012), "Background", paragraph 1 (in 1912 Postmaster General Frank Hitchcock authorized local postmasters to allow postal employees and citizens to respond to the letters, in the program that became known as Operation Santa); paragraph 2 (charitable organizations and corporations invited to provide written responses and small gifts)
  5. USPS Operation Santa, "About", "1912" (Hitchcock "authorizing local postmasters to open up these letters for employees to read and respond"); "1940s" (opened to the public: "Charitable organizations, corporations, and regular folks"); "2017" ("the online program started in New York"); "2019" ("Now, anyone in the U.S. can fulfill someone's holiday wish")
  6. Canada Post, "Write a letter to Santa", Introduction ("For more than 40 years, Canada postal elves have been busy helping Santa sort through over one million letters per year"; "Send your letter to Santa no later than December 9, 2026"); "Guidelines to mail your letter" ("Santa Claus / North Pole / H0H 0H0 / Canada"; "No stamps are required to mail a letter to Santa within Canada"; "Include your return address"); "Letters from around the world" (outside Canada, "a reply in the same language")
  7. Canada Post, "Postal elves ready to help Santa's post office: more than a million letters expected again this year", news release, November 12, 2013, Paragraph 2 ("More than 21.8 million letters have been received at Santa's North Pole Post Office since 1982"; elves help him answer "in more than 30 different languages, including Braille"); paragraph 6 (an employee-led volunteer initiative of current and retired employees)
  8. epd, "Weihnachtspostfiliale Himmelpfort startet Saison", evangelisch.de, November 14, 2024, Paragraph 1 (Germany's largest Christmas post office); paragraph 5 (about 300,000 wish lists from 59 countries); lead and paragraph 6 (it began, "den Angaben zufolge", in 1984 in the GDR, with two letters to the Weihnachtsmann from children in Saxony and Berlin, which the postwoman answered herself); paragraph 10 (seven Christmas post offices nationwide; others include Engelskirchen and Himmelpforten in Lower Saxony)
  9. Deutsche Post, "Himmelpfort" (Weihnachtspost › Weihnachtsmann & Christkind), Internet Archive capture of June 6, 2026, "Geschichte", paragraph 2 (the history of the Weihnachtsmann in Himmelpfort goes back to 1984, when two children from Berlin and Saxony wrote to the Weihnachtsmann at Himmelpfort and a post worker answered them herself)
  10. DHL Group, "Weihnachtspostfilialen 2025: Christkind, Weihnachtsmann und Nikolaus beantworten rund 564.500 Kinderbriefe", press release, December 30, 2025 (Internet Archive capture of January 14, 2026), The lead (seven Christmas post offices); "Anzahl der Briefe 2025" (Himmelpfort, Brandenburg, 280,000, the most of the seven)
  11. DWDS (Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache), "Weihnachtsmann", Wortzerlegung ("Weihnacht Mann")
  12. Government Book Talk, US Government Publishing Office: Ed Kessler, "The Beginning of a Great Holiday Tradition" (December 21, 2017), and Chelsea Milko, "The U.S. Government's Santa-Tracking Mission" (December 19, 2016), both posted by Trudy Hawkins, The cited page holds two posts. "The Beginning of a Great Holiday Tradition" (December 21, 2017), paragraphs 1–4 (1955; a misprinted Sears newspaper ad; the calls reached the Colorado headquarters of the air-defense command; Col. Harry Shoup, CONAD's director of operations, turned "Cold War-era radar operators into North Pole elves", "playing along by scanning monitors for indications of Santa"; NORAD, "CONAD's successor"). "The U.S. Government's Santa-Tracking Mission" (December 19, 2016), paragraph 3: the radar operators "scanned monitors for indications of Santa on the move"; paragraph 7: "Santa positioning updates were originally delivered over the radio and through the Santa Tracking hotline" (the children were told where he was)