Customs - 300,000 letters have arrived at Christmas post offices
A few days before Christmas, hundreds of thousands of wish lists have already been received by the Christmas post offices. The Christkind post office in Engelskirchen near Cologne alone has received more than 100,000 so far, said spokeswoman Britta Töllner on request. "We are always amazed and delighted by the original formulations and wishes." More than 200,000 letters have already been counted in Himmelpfort in Brandenburg.
The mail is also piling up elsewhere, for example at the St. Nicholas post office in St. Nicholas in Saarland. "It feels like there are a lot of them, around 27,000 to 28,000," said Sabine Gerecke, head of the children's letter campaign. A team of around 45 people will answer all the letters. "We are working non-stop for six weeks."
There are seven Christmas post offices across Germany where children can send their letters to Santa Claus, the Christ Child or St. Nicholas - three of which are located in Lower Saxony. One of them is in Himmelsthür near Hildesheim: "30,000 have been received there so far, all of which have been answered," said a Deutsche Post spokesperson.
As a rule, a balance sheet is only drawn up after the festival. In Himmelpfort in the north of Brandenburg, the local post office only closes on Christmas Eve. According to Deutsche Post, around 310,000 letters were received from children in 60 countries last year.
As the St. Nicholas post office also receives many letters from abroad, there are replies in Ukrainian, Hungarian, Russian, Spanish, English and Chinese, among others. According to Gerecke, the letters come from all over the world, but most of them are from children in Germany.
Children often think about the situation in the world, according to the Christkind post office in Engelskirchen. A girl called Hermine asked for the presents to be forwarded to Africa. Clara wanted "no more people to go hungry". A boy wished for peace in Ukraine, Israel and the whole world as well as "that everyone has food and drink and a place to live".
The range of wishes includes precisely described products as well as gifts that cost nothing: from a Playstation and striped socks to a walk with grandma.
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- The children in Saarland can send their letters to Saint Nicholas at the local Saint Nicholas post office, just like children in North Rhine-Westphalia do at the St. Nicholas post office in Cologne.
- In addition to the Christkind post office in Engelskirchen, there are seven Christmas post offices in Germany where children can send their wish lists, including one in Himmelsthür, Brandenburg, which has received around 30,000 letters so far.
- Despite receiving over 300,000 letters from children around the world last year, the post offices in Germany always make sure to answer each and every letter, just as the St. Nicholas post office in Saarland, which employs a team of around 45 people to handle the letters during the busy holiday season.
- Many of the letters received at the Saint Nicholas post office in Saarland come from children outside of Germany, requiring responses in various languages such as Ukrainian, Hungarian, Russian, Spanish, English, and Chinese.
- Although some children ask for material gifts like a Playstation or striped socks, others demonstrate a more compassionate and global perspective, such as the girl in Engelskirchen who asked for the presents to be forwarded to Africa and the boy who wished for peace in Ukraine, Israel, and the entire world.
- In total, 310,000 letters were received from children in 60 countries at the Christmas post offices located throughout Germany last year, emphasizing the global reach of this annual tradition.
Source: www.stern.de
