Every year the kids write a letter to Santa, but how often does he write back?

If you act NOW you can get a response from the Big Man in Red, with a little help from the Elves at the US Post Office. It’s even post marked from the North Pole!

North Pole, Alaska, that is.

Have you made Christmas Ornaments yet? Here’s 21 ideas to get you crafting with the kids!

The US Post Office Makes Christmas Magic

Here’s how it works:

YOU write the letter from Santa, using whatever stationary you want. Make sure you sign the letter as Santa.

Put Santa’s letter in an envelope and address it to your child. Make sure you get the return address right! (SANTA, NORTH POLE.) PUT A REAL FIRST CLASS STAMP ON IT — remember, this is traveling in the US Mail.

Put Santa’s letter in a bigger envelope, preferably a Priority Mail Flat Rate envelope if you’re cutting it close to the deadline.

Mail the packet to:

North Pole Postmark
Postmaster
4141 Postmark Drive
Anchorage, AK 99530-9998

The Anchorage post office will open the outer envelope, post mark the letter from Santa with a special “North Pole, AK” stamp and mail it back to you.

The Post Office recommends sending Letters from Santa by December 1, 2023 so that they can be received by the Anchorage, AK, Postmaster in time for the elves to do their magic.

Remember, the Post Office elves are not writing any part of the letter, they’re just mailing it back to you. From the North Pole. Sorta.

How to Mail a Child’s Letter to Santa

The best part of this free letter FROM Santa is that it doesn’t matter HOW your kid writes or delivers their Christmas letter.

Heck, when I was little, mom told me to put a letter in my Christmas stocking and it would magically arrive at the North Pole. My family watched a lot of sci-fi, so the concept of a portal to the North Pole in my stocking was not a hard sell.

For an extra special touch, you can write Santa’s response on the BACK of their letter to Santa and when the kid isn’t watching, mail it to the Alaskan post office.

Hand Deliver Santa’s Letter!

And remember, you can always have the kids write their letter and hand deliver it to pretty much any Santa doing photo ops. I’m sure he’ll play along! Later on, you can whip up a proper response from Santa or his elf helpers and slip it a stack of mail or right into the kid’s stocking.

Be sure to share the experience on social media using #GreetingsFromTheNorthPole

Tips:

• To save paper, write on the back of your child’s letter. If you keep them together, your child will also be able to recall what he or she wrote.
• When responding as Santa, make the response as personal as possible by highlighting your child’s accomplishments over the past year. For example, helping around the house, receiving good grades in a particular subject at school or participating in community service activities.

What if I missed the Dec. 1, 2023 deadline?

That’s ok! It happens. If your kids are young enough to totally believe in Christmas Magic….or don’t understand postal stamps…just make your own return letter and slip it into your stack of mail. They’ll never know!

To help you out, I made this cute FAUX stamp that you can copy and print on an envelope. I made it in Picmonkey if you’d like to make your own. 

Where to Buy Stationary for the Kid’s Letter to Santa

~This post contains affiliate links (including links to Amazon) which may reward me in the event of a sale.~

If you’re interested in BUYING some special stationary for your kid to write on, I found a couple cute things at Amazon and other bloggers around the ‘net.