Mail From Santa Claus May Be Anthrax Victim
Mail from Santa Claus may be among the casualties of the nation’s anthrax scare.
Security measures imposed by the U.S. Postal Service in response to anthrax-contaminated mail could mean the end of a popular Christmas letter effort in Alaska’s interior that has thrilled children for nearly five decades.
As many as 60,000 letters a year pass through the tiny post office in North Pole, a town of 1,570 people southeast of Fairbanks. Some are addressed simply “Santa, North Pole.” Each letter with a return address usually gets a personal reply and a North Pole postal cancellation mark.
This year, however, piles of mail might lie unopened, as postal workers grapple with how to handle the volume while dealing with the anthrax threat.
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