Postal Service to resume North Pole Santa letters

[onehandle]

Source: AP

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Wide-eyed children around the world will be hearing from Santa's "elves" at the North Pole after all. During Christmas seasons for decades, these dedicated elves responded to thousands of letters addressed to "Santa Claus, North Pole."

All that was ending with a U.S. Postal Service decision to discontinue the program based in the small Alaskan town amid privacy concerns. The elves from Santa's Mailbag vowed to fight the decision, while North Pole residents voiced outrage.

A reversal of the Postal Service move was announced Friday. "We never wanted to spoil people's Christmas," said agency spokesman Ernie Swanson. "It was just a decision we had to make based on privacy concerns, and it is labor-intensive. But it's still nice that we're able to resume this and still make people's holiday."

The letters will now be answered under tightened privacy rules implemented nationwide by the Postal Service in response to security concerns that arose in a similar program in Maryland last year.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091121/ap_on_re_us/us_sant...

[itsrobert]

1. onehandle or is it really two?

Look it up.

[glowing]

2. I think it has more to do with the cost than security issues... The NSA has us all on lockdown

any way.

[niyad]

3. blessings to santa's elves, and bah humbug to the usps

[rooboy]

4. Santa will be living on a houseboat before long... n/t

[applegrove]

5. If they have the postal code "HO HO HO" they end up at Canada post.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[earth mom]

7. Glad to see that the P.O. has tightened security but kept the program. nt

[Brickbat]

8. Huzzah! I'm glad to hear this.

[Historic NY]

9. I could never figure why the PO didn't issue authority for major post offices..

to recieve & stamp the letters with the North Pole postmark. More would get answered by spreading them around the country. It would make sense to use the volunteer to sace on expense.