Inside Santa's official Finnish post office, where elves process hundreds of thousands of festive letters

Santa's mail has been going to the wrong address

Santa does not live at the North Pole as Posti steps in to rescue misdirected Christmas wishes

Daily Dispatch Correspondent

10 NOV 2026, 05:02

2 min read

Millions of letters written to Father Christmas may be going missing each year because children around the world are sending them to the wrong address, according to Finland's national postal service. Despite common belief, Santa Claus officially resides in Rovaniemi in the Finnish Arctic Circle rather than the North Pole.

To ensure no child's festive wish is lost, Finnish postal operator Posti has launched the North Pole Redirect campaign. The international initiative introduces dedicated postboxes in major cities and coordinates with global post offices to reroute misaddressed letters to Santa's official post office.

SummaryOpen the quick read

Finland's postal service Posti warns that millions of letters sent to Father Christmas at the North Pole are being misdirected each year.
Santa Claus's official, trademarked hometown is recognised as Rovaniemi, situated in the Finnish Arctic Circle.
Posti has launched the North Pole Redirect campaign, placing special postboxes in London, New York, and Toronto to ensure letters reach Lapland.
Global postal operators are being urged to forward letters addressed to the North Pole directly to Finland.
Santa Claus' Main Post Office receives around 500,000 letters annually and has handled over 25 million letters from more than 200 countries.

Millions of letters to Father Christmas could be going astray every year because children around the world have been sending them to the wrong address, according to Finland's postal service.

It turns out Santa Claus does not officially live at the North Pole after all.

His registered hometown is Rovaniemi, a city in Finland's Arctic Circle, and the Finnish postal service has launched a campaign to put the record straight before Christmas.

Posti, which operates Santa Claus' Main Post Office in Rovaniemi, estimates that millions of letters are misdirected every year because of the widespread belief that Father Christmas lives at the North Pole.

The postal service has now launched what it calls the North Pole Redirect, an international campaign to make sure children's Christmas wishes reach the right destination.

Special Santa mailboxes are being installed in London, New York and Toronto, with letters collected from them delivered to Finland before Christmas.

Posti is also encouraging postal services around the world to forward letters addressed to Santa at the North Pole to his official Finnish address.

"People write to Santa to be heard. Their hopes and wishes matter to us," Posti vice-president of brand and marketing Jenni Ihatsu said.

"By our estimate, millions of letters to Santa are misdirected every year, and we don't want a single wish lost along the way."

The campaign follows a decision earlier this year by the European Union Intellectual Property Office upholding Rovaniemi's registered trademark as "The Official Hometown of Santa Claus".

And Santa's Finnish post office is no small operation.

It receives about 500,000 letters annually, with as many as 30,000 arriving in a single day during the busiest weeks before Christmas.

Six postal elves work at the office throughout the year, with the workforce swelling to about 20 during the festive season.

Over the years, the office has received more than 25 million letters from more than 200 countries.

"On any given day, we might be reading letters from Poland, Taiwan, Italy, Japan or Finland," chief elf Katja Tervonen said.

"Each one of them brings a small piece of the world to our door, in different languages, drawings and stories."

For children who want to avoid any further confusion, the official address is simply:

Santa Claus' Main Post Office, Arctic Circle, Finland.

No street number required.

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