Thousands of letters and postcards for Santa have arrived at New Zealand Post, ready to be delivered to the man in red.
There’s a bit of a wheels theme in this year’s present requests, with remote control cars, monster trucks, bikes and scooters all featuring highly.
Electronic toys and devices are popular, including tablets, gaming consoles and phones. Pets also feature on the wish lists, including requests for a monkey, a penguin and a pony - though it has to be a pony that doesn’t kick.
“Children have been sending some lovely messages and requests in to Santa,” New Zealand Post spokeswoman Tina Morgan said.
One child said their Christmas wish was that boys and girls who don’t have much of anything get lots of presents from Santa this year. Another wished Santa a safe journey and said she didn’t mind what she got . . . but if Santa had a spare scooter, she would really like a red one.
Letters and online postcards need to be sent in by Sunday, December 4, to be sure of getting a response from Santa in the post, New Zealand Post says. However, after that date, digital postcards sent to Santa will still get a reply by email.
“This year children can write a traditional letter to Santa and put it in the post, or go onto the Write to Santa website at www.nzpost.co.nz/writetosanta and have some fun decorating and sending their own digital postcard to Santa,” Ms Morgan said.
“Families have really embraced the interactive website and we’ve already had over 10,000 digital postcards sent to Santa,” Ms Morgan said. “Traditional letters remain popular too, and we’ve had more than 40,000 come in so far from individuals and schools.”
The company is working with the Blind Foundation and children can opt to be sent a response from Santa in large text or braille.
Santa will be busy this Christmas as nine out of 10 children who have written in say they have been nice, and not naughty.
“That’s a lot of deliveries for Santa,” Ms Morgan says, “but New Zealand Post will do its best to help out.”
