Santa’s Mailbox

Ever wonder where letters go when they’re addressed to Santa? Well, it turns out that they don’t go directly to the North Pole, but many of them are sent as close to it as possible: a giant red mailbox in the capital of Greenland.

Every winter, thousands of letters addressed to Santa are routed to one mailbox in Nuuk, Greenland, where they are opened and read by a handful of volunteers from the small town of 17,000. When possible, the volunteers use Google Translate to deliver a handwritten response to the children (be they naughty or nice) in their native language. 

In addition to letters, Santa’s mailbox also receives a handy amount of pacifiers in the mail. (Apparently, many parents ween their kids off of their pacifiers by having them mailed to St. Nick.)

The huge mailbox is located outside the Nuuk tourism office and is one of the major attractions in the city. It is emptied on December 24th each year, ready to receive a fresh batch of correspondence next winter.

Update July 2018: This mailbox is closed and has removed.