Sending a wish list to Santa is part of the Christmas tradition in several countries. While in some countries such as the UK and the US, the postal department takes care of the children’ s letters, in some Latin American countries the practice is to send the wish list by wind. Of late, a good majority of the task has been taken over by the internet.

Though the letters are promptly replied by the postal departments, the actual gift giving is taken care of by the families. Kindhearted souls and charities for children often perform the task of gift-giving to poor children.

Letters
In several countries, children’s Christmas celebrations begin with writing a letter to Santa Claus, which would be a wish list sent in advance. Postal services in those countries assign volunteers to send replies.

The most popular address of Santa Claus is the one in Finland which receives around 600,000 letters ever year from around 150 countries. The address is: Santa Claus, Santa Claus Village, FIN-96930 Arctic Circle, Finland.

The US postal service receives letters to Santa Claus, North Pole, Alaska, which are replied to by special volunteers. The Canada Post, which has a special postal code for Santa Claus, replies to all letters addressed to ‘’Santa Claus, North Pole, Canada’’.

By wind
In Mexico and some other Latin American countries there is a curious tradition of sending the wish list by wind. Children there tie the wish list to helium balloons and send them by wind to their dear Santa. An ancient tradition in the UK was to burn the letters in an open fire in front of the house in belief that the wind would carry the wishes to Father Christmas.

Email
Though a late entrant, internet today is a popular medium of communication with Santa Claus. Several websites offer email service to send the wish list to Santa.