"Santa! You've got mail! More than a million pieces of it! Canada Post announced today that its very dedicated group of employees, who sign-up for extra duty as Santa's special letter-writing assistants, are ready to help Santa answer this year's letters. Current and retired Canada Post employees have helped Santa answer the millions of letters he receives each year for more than 20 years, and they're anxious to get started again this holiday season. Santa said that he always sends a very special thank you letter to Canada Post after Christmas. "My good friends at Canada Post have made it possible for me to reply to more than 11 million letters, in 26 different languages, over the last 20 years! Canada Post has connected me with children from all over the world and I am very grateful for the efforts of its dedicated Santa helpers." Canada Post's very popular Santa letter-writing program has become a favourite with children in Canada and around the world. Launched nationally in 1982, the program got its start in Montréal in 1973 when some local Canada Post employees decided to set up a program to answer letters to Santa. Writers of those first letters are now helping their children write to Santa ~ and some of Santa's new pen pals may be receiving responses from the same postal elf who answered their parent's letters! Children from around the world are invited to send Santa their holiday wishes – or that famous list – at his special postal code in the North Pole. They can send their letters to: SANTA CLAUS NORTH POLE H0H 0H0 CANADA " http://www.canadapost.ca/personal/corporate/about/newsroom/pr/archive-e.asp?prid=962 Edit - Last year, Santa received more than a million letters, in 26 languages, from children all around the world. Since Canada Post's Santa letter-writing program's national launch more than 20 years ago, Santa has read and responded to more than 11 million letters. Last year, more than 1 million letters were received at Santa's H0H 0H0 postal code from children around the world, in more than 26 languages including Braille. Almost 25,000 additional letters were e-mailed to Santa through Canada Post's Web site. Each child received a letter back from Santa, thanks to his dedicated helpers at Canada Post. communications@canadapost.ca - Phone: 1 613 734-8888

Really go?? You mean he doesn't get them?

Well my understanding is that the mail goe's to all the post office's and then would go the right people for some one like santa claus would be able to look at and read and if he can't then he would have the right people to help him out and seperate them like many other regular mail for all the kids and people in the world all the letter in the world are not a waste of time and don't worry where the mail maybe going but rather hope and have faith! faith is much stronger that politics and religion at times where faith is life and an understanding on how we should behave and act and believe with out this i believe that mankind can not live in harmony and have an understanding of how or what they them selves should believe and become not so much as to what other people but as whole, an individual now if you lived in the east coast in america then this mail would be brought to the west coast then to its rightfull designation

I know that in the state of Georgia all the Santa letters stay at the post office. You can go to any local post office and request as many letters as you want so that you can "play" Santa. My husband and I try to answer at least 5 letters each year. If we try to answer any mor than 5, it gets a little expensive. :)

They goto the post office and they have extra employees who usually reply back. Afterwards the letters are recycled.

They go to the North Pole! No..Canada post has a wonderful program of which kids send a letter to 'santa' and get a reply,it takes a while though.It's always fun writing. A picture from the Canada post site:

The Polar Express Train takes them to the North Pole and gives them to Santa's elves to sort and give to Santa. So be good so you'll get a present!

Well, you could always just send me your letter through eMail, and I'll be sure Santa replies. I'm one of Santa's Elves, so I'll see to it that he gets your letter! By the way, if you want to join in the Reindeer Games, go to http://www.the-reindeer-games.blogspot.com to play! snowballmcjinglebell@gmail.com

Well I thought Santa really got them, I'm still confused. Do they go to the post office, the north pole where? I think Santa really does get them and he's just to busy making all those toys he doesn't have time to write everyone. He wrot me when I was like 6 I had left carrots and cookies and milk that away the reindeer could eat too and he left me an extra present and wrote me the next day telling me thanks for feeding the reindeer too. I love still being a kid at heart. It's so much fun! HEHE!

I'm not sure where they go, but I do know how to get a letter back from Santa. Check out SantaMail.org. This company writes personalized letters from Santa to your child. It's pretty cheap ($9.95) and the presentation is awesome.

I think most of them end up in the town of Santa Claus, Indiana, giving the old lady who runs the post office there panic attacks over what to do with them all.

The dead letter office.

They go into their parents purse or wallet for when the parent is gonna go up town to get the presents for the time when they have to pretend that Santa is coming.

Great question! http://www.nbc4i.com/midwest/cmh/news.apx.-content-articles-CMH-2007-11-26-0038.html "What is the origin of the program? As close as we can tell, the Postal Service began receiving letters to Santa Claus more than 100 years ago. In 1912, Postmaster General Frank Hitchcock authorized local postmasters to allow postal employees and citizens to respond to the letters in the program – this became known as Operation Santa. In the 1940s, mail volume for Santa increased so much that the Postal Service invited charitable organizations and corporations to participate —providing written responses and small gifts. Through the years, the program has take on a life of its own and today cities around the country have hugely successful programs with recognized charitable organizations, major corporations, local businesses and postal employees making a major difference in the lives of children from coast to coast. What is the program’s mission? The Postal Service and its employees play important roles in communities around the nation—in terms of the post office building itself being the city center in many smaller communities and the employees who work inside them. We live in the communities we work in. Our children go to school there. We shop in the local stores. We eat in the restaurants. We participate in the community business. The mission is simply to help wherever we can and do the right thing by helping children. Do all letters addressed to Santa Claus go to the North Pole? No. Only letters addressed to a specific address —complete with correct ZIP Code— would go to the North Pole. The vast majority of letters for Santa Claus are addressed “Santa Claus, North Pole” or just simply “Santa” — these letters would be processed just like all other letters but because they do not have a complete address, our processing equipment would process them into a default area. The default letters are then sorted —mail that might have been incorrectly addressed is taken one place and the Santa letters are taken some place else entirely. Generally beginning the first week of December, groups of postal employees around the country start sorting through these Santa letters to begin the process of making some well-deserved children’s dreams come true. How many letters do you get each year? It’s difficult to provide an exact figure because technically this is undeliverable as addressed mail. But we know there are hundreds of thousands of letters each year. How many kids and families has this program helped? Countless. We’ve never kept those numbers. I understand the Postal Service has a program where I can have my child sent a letter from Santa Claus and have my greeting cards postmarked from the North Pole. How does that work? This is called a postmark “re-mailing program” You can obtain the North Pole Postmark on a letter from “Santa” addressed to your child or on your holiday greeting cards. For the letter to your child: You write a letter to your child and sign it from Santa. You place this letter into an envelope addressed to your child with the return address from SANTA, NORTH POLE and please make sure you have a First-Class stamp affixed to the envelope. For holiday greeting cards: You write out your cards like you normally would. You place the cards into their envelopes. Address the envelopes to the people you want to receive them. Place First-Class stamps on the envelopes and either have the return address from the NORTH POLE or from you and your address. Then place the envelopes into a larger envelope or box addressed to: NORTH POLE CHRISTMAS CANCELLATION POSTMASTER 5400 MAIL TRAIL FAIRBANKS AK 99709-9998 Please make sure appropriate postage is affixed to this larger envelope or box. This envelope needs to be received in Fairbanks, AK, before December 15, 2007. After that date, you should consider mailing requests via Express Mail. Is this the first time there have been guidelines for the program? Yes. While there have been established programs in many locations around the country for many years, national policies and procedures were never established — until now. Why now? The volume of letters has increased and the environment in which we live has changed. Unfortunately we live in an age where we just can’t be careful enough —especially in regard to our children. It has become increasingly evident that policies and procedures designed to govern this program are necessary to protect the safety of the children sending letters to Santa as well as to protect the integrity of the U.S. Postal Service and this well established program. What prompted this? Unfortunately we live in an age where we just can’t be careful enough — especially with regard to our children. The Postal Service is taking a proactive stand to protect the children who write to Santa. It is important to understand that we have never had an incident where a child was harmed or threatened. What is the goal? Our goals are to ensure the safety of the children, protect the integrity of the United States Postal Service and continue the goodwill this program provides to so many families and communities around the nation during the holiday season. What exactly has changed? Letters to Santa will no longer be mailed or FAXed to individuals — all requests must be made in person. Individuals must present photo identification to receive letters. Third parties such as charities, businesses, schools, etc. wishing to adopt letters, must now fill out forms as well. In New York City, where the largest Operation Santa program in the country is managed, very little has changed. Are their programs operating in every city? No. Most major metropolitan areas have active programs, but the decision to manage a program is done at the local levels. Do you think these changes will decrease participation? It hasn’t decreased participation and we started this process last year. We live in a different world today and we feel we are operating under an abundance of caution — we simply want to protect children. We believe customers will respect these changes and accept the minor inconveniences — especially when the reward is helping a child smile and have a wonderful holiday when they otherwise wouldn’t. For more information, Click Here for the USPS Operation Santa Web Site!"

They go to Santa, of course!

In Germany, they are sammled here: http://www.weihnachtsmanndorf.de/ "Weihnachtsmanndorf - Christmas and “der Weihnachtsmann” from the “Christkindldorf” of Himmelpforten, Germany." Source: http://www.german-way.com/christmas2.html

Our city hall has a special box and the children put them in it for Santa.

Well it depends where you address them to, but there is an actuall santas work shop somewhere in america that is aparently payed to reply to all of the childrens letters; but of course thats a lie, they all go to santa ofcourse. Wink, wink.

To Santa of course :O)

Right here.

They sebd it to Micheal Jackson to check whether you've been a bad boy

Right here.

In the post office every year they have bags full of letters

Well i hope they go to Santa!!! lol

there are several post offices that handle the letters. Many have volunteers that open and even try to answer them.