Santa's mailbag still heavy despite email -- UN agency

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http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingne ... _id=107625

Agence France-Presse
Last updated 10:07pm (Mla time) 12/18/2007

GENEVA -- Children send more than six million old-fashioned letters a year to Santa Claus in 2006 despite the growing domination of emails and text messages in modern communications, the UN postal agency said Tuesday.

The Universal Postal Union said that "at a time when the personal letter is being seriously challenged by electronic communication, all the operators surveyed agreed that the number of letters to Santa continues to grow."

"Some operators make it possible to send in e-mail messages which are answered by physical mail," it said. "All the same, Santa still receives far more letters than e-mail, proving that kids still write letters."

France and Canada were among countries receiving the most Santa letters. France received 1.2 million letters to Santa and "other end-of-year holiday figures", while Canada received 1.1 million.

In 2006, Finland received Santa letters from 150 countries, representing 90 percent of the letters it received, it said.

According to the survey, about 20 postal operators "employed elves to help (Santa) handle the huge volume of mail", it said. Many of the letters are addressed simply "To Santa, North Pole".

The Universal Postal Union, based in Berne, Switzerland, establishes the rules for international mail exchanges among its 191 members.