Christmas post offices - a service that makes children's eyes light up

How does a Christmas post office work?
Christmas post offices or Christmas post branches enable children to get in touch with Father Christmas, the Christ Child or St Nicholas in writing. The children write down their wishes, thoughts and sometimes even worries and send the lovingly designed letter to the address of the Christmas post office. There, the letters are opened, read and, if possible, answered by volunteers or postal workers.

The reply is usually sent in a standard Christmas letter, but sometimes also in a personal letter. Depending on the Christmas post office, this service is free of charge for the children or they must enclose a stamped envelope.
To ensure that the reply arrives in time for the festive season, letters should be sent by mid-December at the latest. This is because some Christmas post offices receive tens of thousands of letters every year.

Christmas mail has a long tradition in Germany
The first German Christmas post offices were set up in the 1960s on the initiative of the former Bundespost. Later, Deutsche Post in the GDR also opened its own Christmas post offices. After reunification, Deutsche Post AG continued this tradition.
Many of the Christmas post offices are located in places with Christmassy names such as Himmelpfort, Himmelsthür or Engelskirchen. There, the children's letters are labelled with special Christmas stamps and postmarks, which also makes them interesting for philatelists.
In the meantime, some of the smaller Christmas post offices have fallen victim to the red pencil. Nevertheless, letters to Father Christmas or the Christ Child are still answered, for example in Santa's "writing room".

Father Christmas & Co. have many addresses worldwide
There are Christmas post offices not only in Germany. Children from Austria can also send their wishes to Father Christmas in Christkindl. In Switzerland, the letters originally landed in Bethlehem near Bern, but today Swiss Post's central collection centre in Chiasso takes care of the Christmas mail.
There are also Christmas post offices in many European countries, as well as in the USA and Canada.