Father Christmas's French office open

FATHER Christmas’s French office officially opens for letters from children in France today.

The office is in fact a branch of la Poste at Libourne, in the Gironde, which has been receiving children’s letters on behalf of Santa Claus, and replying for 50 years.

These days you can also send emails: last year Le Père Nöel received 150,000 emails and a million letters.

This year there are 60 staff working on the job.

Letters come from more than 100 countries, mainly French-speaking, but also from countries like Russia, where writing to Father Christmas is popular and even from the Far East, like China and Japan.

Everyone who writes before December 20 will receive a reply. To email, see www.laposte.fr/pere-noel For hand-written letters, they simply need posting in a letter box, addressed to Le Père Noël.

Photo: Jonathan G Meath