Santa’s Mail Finds Home in French Village

They send drawings, carrots for the reindeer and pieces of cake. One youngster who wanted his parents to get rid of their old car sent “Pere Noel” the keys.

Welcome to the Father Christmas postal office in the French town of Libourne, where more than 60 “elves” -- well, secretaries -- spend the holiday season sorting through letters from children around the world and mailing back colorful greeting cards.

Libourne, in the Bordeaux wine country, may be an unlikely home for reindeer, but its fame has spread. The center receives so many letters from Russia that it hired a Russian-speaking secretary.

Letters addressed to “Pere Noel, France” have been landing there for more than 40 years. Since 1997, the French Santa Claus also can be reached by e-mail, via the center’s website (www.laposte.fr/pere-noel/choixversion.php).

Some children ask Pere Noel to give their father a job. One child sent in a doll for him to give to someone less privileged. Another mailed $120 for Santa to buy him the perfect gift.

A few years ago, one letter sent by a class of primary school students in southwestern France was 196 feet long, rolled up like a scroll and hand-delivered.

Last year, staffers responded to children in 127 countries with 1.3 million cards -- dwarfing the volume handled by other mail-to-Santa services in Germany, Sweden, Italy and Norway. Greenland, despite being a land of snow and ice, gets about 50,000 letters a year.

In Italy, Babbo Natale -- “Daddy Christmas” -- responds with Christmas wishes, either in the form of a poem or a special thought, and a small present such as a puzzle that changes every year.

“The ‘Letters to Babbo Natale’ initiative is a way to celebrate Christmas, and also a way to show children the importance of letters as a way to communicate -- a mode which is at risk of dying,” said Daniela Orsini, a spokeswoman for the Italian postal service.

The Pere Noel office in Libourne is decorated for the holidays, with a Christmas tree and glittering garlands, stockings and, of course, letters and drawings from children on the walls.

“Santa’s at the North Pole, but this is one of his offices,” said Herve Labarthe, who heads customer relations at the French mail center. “He’s got other things to worry about: Creating the toys, or preparing his trip. He’s delegated to us for more than 40 years.”

The office got its start in 1962 after a postal worker in Normandy noticed a sudden influx of letters to Pere Noel, but didn’t know how to forward them -- so they ended up in the trash.

But France’s post, telecommunications and telegraph minister heard about the correspondence and asked his sister, a child-psychiatrist, to set up a response center in Paris. About 2,000 letters were answered that first year, Labarthe said by telephone.

A few years later, the center was moved to Libourne as part of a government policy to decentralize some official services away from the capital, he said.

Postal officials say the French station probably gets more letters than other countries because it is the oldest of its kind, and postage isn’t even needed for letters mailed within France. About 25,000 schools write to the center each year.

A 1993 article in the Russian newspaper Pravda increased the center’s fame, and since then journalists from around the globe have visited, Labarthe said.

This year, the office opened Nov. 21. Some children send thank-you notes after Christmas, and a few write to express their disappointment with toys that break too fast.

“But we don’t offer after-sales service,” said Labarthe, laughing.

France’s mail service, La Poste, says the operation costs $1.4 million each year. After the Christmas season, the office goes back to its regular task: sorting mail with unknown addresses.