Do you have children or younger relatives who would be delighted to get a letter from the real Santa Claus? And did you know you know that it is easy to order a letter from the Finnish Santa Claus, and you can get them in 13 languages? Amazing, right?
A Finnish Santa Writes Back and a New Tradition is Born
In Finland, as in many other countries, writing Santa Claus has long traditions. But what perhaps makes the Finnish Santa Claus a bit special is that he writes back – even to children abroad! We haven’t been able to find information about how exactly this tradition started, but it might well be linked to this very interesting story (only in Finnish). To recap, a Finnish mailman living in Helsinki called Sven Gladh was sorting letters when he noticed a very interesting letter. The year was 1948 and the letter in his hand had been sent from England. It was clearly written by a child and adressed to Father Christmas in Petsamo, Finland. Petsamo, however, had just been annexed by the Soviet Union, so the mailman could obviously not deliver the letter to another country and thus considered throwing the letter away. But then he remembered his 2-year-old son and how much he was waiting for Christmas, so instead Mr. Gladh decided to write a letter back to the child. In the letter, he also mentioned that Father Christmas in Finland is called “Joulupukki”.
Sven Gladh thought that was the end of the story when his boss came to him with a letter from London, England, addressed to “Joulupukki”. It was the father of the children who had sent the letter to Father Christmas, thanking Sven for the letter. Moreover, the father told that the local press had even written about it in the newspaper – “Father Christmas Wrote by Air Mail”! The two fathers became life-long friends and visited each other multiple times, while Sven Gladh started receiving and answering letters from other English children who had heard about the Father Christmas in Finland who responds to their letters! What a heartwarming story – and a true one. Sven Gladh’s selflessness is a true inspiration and it beautifully encapsulates the true Christmas spirit.
How to Write a Letter to Santa Claus
If you simply want to write Santa Claus and are not that concerned with getting a reply, you can write him at the following address:
Santa Claus’ Main Post Office
Tähtikuja 1, 96930 Arctic Circle
FINLAND
According to Posti, Santa receives around 30,000 letters daily during the busiest times! Crazy, isn’t it?
How to Receive a Letter from Santa Claus
Giving is nice, but at least many kids probably think that receiving is even better. So, if you want to make sure your child(ren), nephew or niece or someone else you care about receives a letter back from Santa, you have to order an official Santa’s Letter.
Ordering one is easy. First you write the name of the recipient. Then, proceed to choose the language in which the letter should be written. Santa Claus writes his letters in the following thirteen languages to children worldwide: English, Finnish, Swedish, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Italian, Polish, Russian, Chinese and Japanese.
To order the Santa’s Letter, go here: Santa’s Letter (this link takes you directly to the page on Posti’s website, the main Finnish postal service)
What is in the Letter from Santa Claus
Finally, you might want to know what you get when ordering a Letter from Santa Claus. Well, you get a letter with stories about Santa and his Christmas elves, a certificate of niceness and a Christmas-themed coloring card. Quite lovely, isn’t it?
Getting a letter delivered from Santa Claus himself can make a child very happy and by writing this article we hope that more adults around the world will be aware of this incredible opportunity. After all, this is the real Santa Claus, the one that lives in Rovaniemi, Finland, that we are talking about.
We hope you enjoyed this article. Remember to comment and share this article with friends if you know someone else who could want a letter from Santa Claus this year!