This year, Swiss Post is again helping to ensure that the children’s letters are answered. It forwards all letters addressed to Santa Claus to the five Swiss Post employees at the Christmas branch in Chiasso. This means that even those children’s letters with the most imaginative addresses – “Père Noël, aux Rochers du Naye”, “Christkind und Nikolaus, Himmelspforte 24, 2412 Im Wald” or “Gesù Bambino, Via delle stelle, Paradiso” – reach Santa directly. For more than 60 years, these letters have been forwarded to Santa’s team – after being sorted by language. Every sender receives a reply and a small present – as long as they have provided the sender’s address. The answers are written in one of three national languages or in English.

Thanks to Swiss Post’s Christmas team, almost every letter receives an answer

Last year, Santa’s helpers received 18,699 children’s letters and drawings with wishes for presents or greetings to Santa Claus. Most of them came from the French-speaking part of Switzerland, followed by Ticino and German-speaking Switzerland. Swiss Post’s Christmas team tirelessly endeavours to reply to every letter. Unfortunately, this is not always possible: sometimes the sender’s address is missing and the other details in the letter are insufficient to establish who the sender is. However, the team still managed to reply to 17,971, or 96%, of the letters in 2014. For the other letters, Santa’s team unfortunately had to give up the search for the sender.

Every year, the team in Chiasso looks forward to reading the letters which often contain drawings and handicrafts. A special Christmas stamp and the postmark of the Berne-Bethlehem post office decorate each and every reply.