La Poste opens annual Father Christmas letter service

From this week until December 18, any letters addressed simply to “Père Noël” (Father Christmas) including the writer’s full name and home address, will receive a letter in return.

The letter does not even need to have a stamp; it simply needs to be posted in a normal post box, and the post office will sort it from the other letters and make sure it is counted.

Father Christmas also moves with the times, and is now accepting emails too.

The more-electronically-minded can click on the La Poste Father Christmas secretary website, and click on the “Write to me” tab.

More than simply an email service, the website is also designed to help educate children about Christmas traditions around the world.

This includes an interactive map, on which you can click a continent, followed by some global countries, and discover traditional elements of Christmas abroad - including well-known food and recipes, and unusual traditions (such as Japan’s kurisumasu keki cake, and Ukraine’s tendency to see spiders as good-luck omens).

There is also a section for telling Christmas tales, and discovering the seasonal stories of other children.