...hot motel, stuffy inside...

I'm a little embarrassed to confide this to you, because the general consensus will be "Oh Sanam, so naive and innocent. How endearing".

As of Wednesday when school ends for the winter break, I am volunteering my time... at Canada Post. To be an elf. For Christmas, and to answer the letters of the little kids who write to Santa and need an answer, so that they don't stop believing in Christmas!

So when you write to Santa, the official address is:

Santa Claus
The North Pole
HOH OHO
Canada

I love how everyone acknowledges that Santa lives in Canada, synonmous with snow and cold things. So the Canada Post gets these letters from everywhere, from all around the world, addressed to Santa and they end up at Canada Post, and for the month of December they have actual "elves" (the rumour has it, complete with green uniform and jolly red hat) and they answer all of these letters so that the kids know that Santa got their letter.

Sometimes the letters are about things like abuse or divorcing patterns, and all of these letters are given to counsellors who then decide if intervention is necessary, and write tailored responses. I love the Canada Post! You have to understand, I used to write to Santa religiously, ok? And I'd get a letter back from Santa saying that he'd try his best to give me the "Super-hair Barbie" I asked for, or whatever, and then (and this part is INGENIOUS) I would get all excited and show the letter to my parents ("he DOES exist... SO THERE") who would think, ahh she wants a Barbie. Do you see how incredibly intelligent this is? And then for those kids who asked for ponies, Santa's off the hook because he said "he'd try his best" and the parents know it's okay if the best they can do is a bright pink My Little Pony (no I'm not speaking from experience. I would never do something so silly as... ask for a pony. Right).

Secret confession: I already wrote my letter to Santa this year. It would be so funny if I got my own to answer. That would make me laugh.

To the inevitable question: No it doesn't lose any of its charm, knowing that a volunteer or staff member from Canada Post is behind the letter. Because I know that behind THAT is the general manager of Canada Post... who is Santa Claus.

So there.