Santa’s mailbox braced for tamariki’s requests
Pa¯ pa¯ moa courier driver hosting letterbox at his address for the third year
Pa¯pa¯moa courier driver Kris Nielson is preparing to be inundated with post after opening up his letterbox to receive Santa’s mail. It’s the third year that the father of five has hosted Santa’s mailbox at his address and each year the letters to Santa keep growing in number.
“The first year Santa got 276 and last year he got 518. I would come home from work some days and the mailbox would be overflowing with mail,” says Kris.
Youngsters must provide their return address on their letter and can expect a personal reply mailed back to them regardless of where in the country they live.
Kris says there are some extremely cute letters and Santa often gets updates on what youngsters’ holiday plans are, who their favourite friend is that they’ll be hanging out with in summer and what they’ve been up to during the year.
“Most of the time they’ll give Santa one or two ideas . . . it’s just a lot of summery stuff. Last year there were lots of scooters and roller skates requested, and Pokemon cards was a big one.”
The replies take hours every night and are typed up with personalised notes at the bottom.
“Santa likes to tell them what he and Mrs Claus have been up to, if the workshop has been busy or if it’s been slower this year because there’s been too many naughty kids, and how the North Pole is doing.”
The letter drop became so popular that Kris installed a second big red Santa letterbox by his door at 6 Kanono Close, which is also on the Papamoa Christmas lights trail.
It’s an expensive exercise, with stamps costing $1.70 each, but Santa has also gratefully received donations of stamps from people in the community.
Kris recommends that youngsters should get onto their letter soon if they want to ensure a reply before Christmas. “Santa can’t guarantee that anything received after December 20 will get to a child by Christmas. But everyone who gives a return address gets a reply. We’ve had letters from school classrooms, and every child in the class was named in the reply but only one letter got sent back.”
Kris is also busy preparing his house for the Christmas light display in Papamoa, saying he enjoys being able to give back to the community.
“I’ve got five kids of my own and I’m a busy person but it’s always nice to read the letters that get delivered to Santa. My six and eight-year-old know that because Dad’s a courier driver, I can take Santa’s letters to work and make sure they get delivered to him.”