**Would Your Kiddos Love a Letter from Santa? Here’s How to Get a Personal Response This Year
This USPS program allows kids to get personalized free letters from Santa Claus by mail!
Make Christmas more magical than ever. ✨
There’s nothing that kiddos look forward to more than the yearly task of writing up their Christmas wish lists to send to Santa. And now, the USPS is making it easier than ever for them to get free letters from Santa Claus by mail!
Their “Greetings From the North Pole” program is designed to encourage children’s interest in writing, penmanship, and communication via letters, and they create a super exciting event that the kids can look forward to during the holiday season.
Here’s how to get your very own free letter from Santa Claus by mail this year:
- Encourage your child to write a letter to Santa Claus and place it in an envelope addressed to: Santa Claus, North Pole.
- Write a personal response to your child’s letter and sign it “From Santa.” For an extra special touch, try using our FREE Santa Clause letterhead!
- Insert both your child’s letter and your response into an envelope, and address it to your child.
- Add the return address: “Santa, North Pole” to the front of the envelope.
- Place a First-Class Mail stamp on the front of the envelope as well.
- Put the envelope containing the letters into a larger envelope, and address it to:
NORTH POLE POSTMARK
POSTMASTER
4141 POSTMARK DR
ANCHORAGE AK 99530-9998
And that’s it!
The USPS recommends sending the letters out by December 10th to make sure your kiddo gets a response in time for Christmas. If you want to share your family’s experience with others on social media, use the tag #GreetingsFromTheNorthPole.
Writing a Santa letter this year? The USPS has some advice.
Want to make your kiddo’s Christmas as magical as ever? The USPS provided some helpful tips for writing your letters.
Here’s what the USPS recommends:
- 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 letter from Santa 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.
- This is a great activity for Thanksgiving that the whole family can enjoy, including parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other caregivers.
Want to play Santa to a child in need? Learn how to join Operation Santa!
I am so confused on how this works. Is this just an idea, or will someone actually send a response?
I’m with you…super confusing. Seems like basically the parent does all the letter writing and pays for postage both ways. All we are getting is a “North Pole” postmark.
Your child writes a letter to Santa. You will write a response to that letter put them in an envelope with a stamp then put that envelope in a bigger envelope with postage and send it to the address that shows. Then the letter will be returned with a North Pole stamp on it. Basically you are replying to their letter but it looks like it came from the North Pole
It works we do it every year but send them out super early because it takes forever to get them back. Its basically putting a letter in an letter they will take the outside envelope off and then send the inside one postmarked North Pole back to you.
My kids want to mail their letter themselves to be sure that it gets to the post office. I really don’t want to have to mail my kids letter with it.
I’m so confused lol
Sorry for any confusion! Be sure to follow the steps as noted above and through the link in the post. Your child will write a letter and you will write the response.
A big downfall here is that my kids know my handwriting.
I know mine do too!
DARN! Maybe have a close friend write out the response you’d like sent!
I even read the USPS site and I’m still confused. Are the kids supposed to get the original letter back or does ‘Santa’ keep that? Does the larger envelope going to Alaska need postage?
Yes! They can see their letter too if you follow the tip suggested – “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.”
The larger envelope will need postage.
Place the complete envelope into a larger envelope, with appropriate postage, and address it to:
NORTH POLE POSTMARK
POSTMASTER
4141 POSTMARK DR
ANCHORAGE AK 99530-9998
Hope this helps!
I’ve been doing this for years (it was so authentic and convincing, I think it kept my kids believing longer than they otherwise would have!). My kids didn’t mail their letters–they left them with Buddy, our Elf on the Shelf, who took them back to Santa. I would write Santa’s “response” typed in a curly, Santa font 😉 and printed it on parchment Santa letterhead (resume paper) for good measure. You’re putting YOUR letter in a stamped envelope addressed to your child, then placing THAT inside a larger envelope to the Postmaster, Anchorage. They’re basically gonna drop YOUR letter BACK in the mail, and it will arrive for your child with a North Pole postmark.
I had fun making the letter super-specific: refer to their *ask* list, and add some “Buddy told me you helped your Mom fold the laundry,” or “helped Grandma make cookies–he said they smelled yummy” “Buddy tells me you studied really hard for that spelling test and you got an A–I’m so proud of you”. Call out something they actually did. 🙂
I’ll add…since Buddy “took” the letters, I’ve got them all tucked away.
Anyone get a letter back this year? Put alot of time and money into making 3 personalized cards and haven’t received any of them back. Really sad about it right now.
SO sorry to hear this. Hoping they arrive soon!💖