Canada Post Christmas mailing dates, letters to Santa

Canada Post has released its 2017 holiday mailing deadlines for Canada and other regions around the world.

The Crown corporation also outlined its letter-writing program with Santa Claus, who receives sacks of letters from children around the world. Santa’s postal elves are ready to help Santa answer letters in more than 30 languages, including Braille. While postal elves will help Santa reply to every letter with a return address, Canada Post has some advice for parents and teachers.

For parents, there are three rules when sending a letter to Santa:

1. Make sure to include your full return address. Santa may know where you live, but his postal elves need this information to deliver your letter;
2. Santa enjoys reading about children’s favourite sports, jokes, school activities or family fun (even if Mom and Dad help with the writing), and he loves pictures and drawings from his pen pals; and
3. Send your letter soon. Dec. 11 is the last day to mail letters to Santa (it’s a long way to the North Pole and back). Letters mailed after Dec. 11 may not receive a reply before Christmas.

For those people writing from outside Canada, Canada Post is unable to guarantee delivery times outside Canada.

“We will do our best to ensure replies are sent in a timely manner,” reads the Canada Post website.

NO INDIVIDUAL LETTERS FOR STUDENTS

Last year, more than half of the 1.6 million children’s letters received by Santa came from schools and daycares. This year, Santa’s elves are introducing a change to the Santa letter-writing program. This year, class letters will include a small communal gift. This gift will replace individual letters to students in schools and daycares and will eliminate concerns raised by parents about inconsistent responses from Santa when letters are written at school as well as at home.

Santa hopes they will use their gift – a package of seeds from the North Pole – to develop a classroom activity that captures the spirit of the program.

SANTA’S SEEDS

Perhaps students can use Santa’s seeds to discuss the importance of care and nurture. Maybe they want to do something more concrete, like teach the science behind plant growth or the importance of plants for the environment. Maybe they use the gift to discuss symbolism or the spirit of Christmas itself. Maybe they can start, or contribute to, a school garden.

Santa would still love to receive individual letters from your students, or one letter written together.

MAILING LETTERS AT SCHOOL

Letters to Santa must be mailed by Dec. 4 in order to receive a reply before your school breaks for the holidays.

All of the children’s letters should be mailed to Santa in one large envelope. Your package of letters to Santa does not need postage. Please mail it to:

SANTA CLAUS
NORTH POLE H0H 0H0
CANADA

Canada Post can’t mail letters back to a child’s home. Privacy legislation prohibits the sharing of home addresses by schools. Letters will not be sent to children’s homes. If we only have a child’s home address, a reply cannot be sent.

A printed class list should be included in the package to avoid misspelling of a child’s name and to ensure that all students (even those absent on letter-writing day) receive a reply. Also include a completed checklist in your mailed package with the children’s letters.

For our teachers sending class packages from outside Canada, note Canada Post is unable to guarantee delivery times outside Canada and unable to mail seeds internationally (these class posters will not contain seeds and the reply letter will not reference the seeds. Packages mailed outside of Canada do require postage.

CANADA

THE U.S.

EUROPE

ASIA/AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND

CENTRAL AMERICA/SOUTH AMERICA/CARIBBEAN

AFRICA

MIDDLE EAST