Letters to Santa Statistics: How Many Letters Does Santa Get in Canada?
How many letters does Santa get in Canada? More than one million a year. That is the number Canada Post gives for its Santa letter program: its “postal elves” sort over a million letters to Santa each year.1 The figure has barely moved in over a decade. In 2011, Canada Post reported more than a million letters in a single season.2
Canada Post has handled Santa's mail since 1982, the same year Santa got his own postal code, H0H 0H0.3 Below are the numbers over time, how Canada compares with the US, France, Germany and Finland, what happened during the 2024 postal strike, and what children actually ask for.
Letters to Santa in Canada at a glance
Canada Post's Santa letters over time
Canada Post doesn't publish a yearly scoreboard, so the best picture comes from its own news releases and recent press coverage:
| Year | What Canada Post reported | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1982 | Santa gets his own postal code, H0H 0H0, and Canada Post starts handling the letters | CBC News, 2024 |
| 2010 | More than 1 million letters expected; over 18.5 million answered since 1982; 11,000+ volunteer elves | Canada Post release, 2010 |
| 2011 | 20 millionth reply sent; more than 1 million letters that season | Canada Post release, 2011 |
| 2013 | More than 21.8 million letters received since 1982; 9,000 elves | Canada Post release, 2013 |
| 2014 | Up to 1.5 million letters expected; 6,000 elves | Canadian Stamp News, 2014 |
| 2026 | “Over one million letters per year”; program running 40+ years | Canada Post |
Sources: Canada Post1245, CBC News3 and Canadian Stamp News6. Cumulative totals and elf counts are from 2010 to 2014, so treat them as dated. We found no official total after 2013.
1. More than a million letters, year after year
Canada Post said in 2011 that Santa's post office received more than a million letters that season and had passed 20 million replies since 1982.2 In 2014 it expected up to 1.5 million, noting the program had averaged a million letters or more a year for 13 years.6 In 2026 the line is still “over one million letters per year.”1
2. 21.8 million letters since 1982
By November 2013, more than 21.8 million letters had been received at Santa's North Pole Post Office since 1982.4 That works out to roughly 700,000 letters a year on average over the program's life, which fits a program that grew toward the million mark over time. (That average is our own division, not a Canada Post figure.)
3. Volunteers, not a staff department
Canada Post calls the program an employee-led volunteer initiative. In 2013, 9,000 postal elves took part and current and retired employees donated more than 226,000 hours.4 The count has been reported at more than 11,000 (2010)5 and 6,000 (2014)6. Volunteers answer in more than 30 languages, including Braille.4
4. Email once existed
Canada Post's 2010 release said Santa had answered emails since 2002, with over 300,000 answered directly.5 Today the official page describes a mailed-letter program and offers only a [email protected] address for questions.1
How to get a reply in 2026
Mail your letter to Santa Claus, North Pole, H0H 0H0, Canada, no later than December 9, 2026, and include your return address. Stamps aren't needed within Canada. Canada Post can't promise delivery dates, but says Santa responds to every letter he receives.1 Replies to international letters come in the same language as the letter.1
For the exact wording of the address and tips for kids abroad, see our guide to the Santa Claus address.
When the strike stopped Santa's mail
The program normally runs from November 1 to the end of January, and in 2024 letters mailed before December 6 were meant to get a reply before the holidays.3 Then about 55,000 Canada Post workers went on strike on November 15, 2024.3
When the month-long strike ended, Canada Post announced on December 18, 2024 that Santa “won't have time to respond” to letters received by mail that year. It promised that every letter mailed by December 23 would still reach him by Christmas Eve.7 In 2018, by contrast, Canada Post said it would keep processing Santa's letters during rotating strikes.3
How Canada compares with the US, France, Germany and Finland
There's no official global count. The Universal Postal Union's 2013 survey estimated about 8 million letters to Santa worldwide, up from about 6 million in 2007. Canada, France and the US each reported over a million.8 Here is how the main Santa countries line up:
| Country | Letters to Santa per year | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Canada | Over 1 million (2013 and 2026) | UPU; Canada Post |
| United States | Over 1 million (2013) | UPU |
| France | More than 1 million (2025) | La Poste via Brut |
| Great Britain | Over 800,000 (2013) | UPU |
| Germany | 564,500 (2025) | Deutsche Post via epd |
| Finland | 550,000 (2013) | UPU |
Sources: UPU8, Canada Post1, La Poste via Brut9 and Deutsche Post via epd10. The UK, US and Finland figures are from 2013 and may be out of date.
5. France: over a million, answered by about 60 elves
La Poste's Père Noël service began in 1962. It receives more than a million letters a year and has about sixty elves.9
6. Germany: 564,500 letters in 2025
Deutsche Post's seven Christmas post offices answered about 564,500 children's letters in 2025, from Germany and abroad.10
What do Canadian kids ask Santa for?
Canada Post doesn't publish a breakdown of wishes. The best public data comes from Finland, where Santa Claus' Main Post Office analyzed about 6,000 letters from 45 countries in 2024:11
| What kids asked for | Share of letters |
|---|---|
| Toys | 67.2% |
| A pet | 1.3% |
| A baby brother or sister | 0.2% |
Toys are requested about 50 times more often than pets. Analysts also noted a newer trend: more letters asking for time together as a family, plus stress toys.11 Treat this as an international snapshot, not a Canadian one.
Wondering what to say if your child asks how Santa reads it all? Our article Is Santa real? has age-by-age answers, and on December 24 you can follow him on our Santa tracker.
Use these numbers
Writing about letters to Santa in Canada? Feel free to use the numbers. We appreciate a link back to this page:
<a href="https://santavideo.ca/blog/letters-to-santa-statistics/">Letters to Santa statistics (Canada)</a>
Letters to Santa in Canada: frequently asked questions
How many letters does Santa get in Canada?
More than one million a year, according to Canada Post, which says its postal elves sort over a million letters to Santa annually. Canada Post has reported figures at or above that mark since at least 2010. There is no official exact count for the latest season.
What is the deadline to mail a letter to Santa in 2026?
Canada Post asks that letters be mailed no later than December 9, 2026. Use Santa Claus, North Pole, H0H 0H0, Canada, and include your return address so Santa can reply. Delivery dates aren't guaranteed, but Santa responds to every letter he receives.
Do I need a stamp to write to Santa from Canada?
No. Canada Post says stamps aren't required for letters to Santa mailed within Canada.
How many elves answer Santa's letters in Canada?
Canada Post has not published a recent headcount. Its releases cited more than 11,000 volunteer postal elves in 2010, 9,000 in 2013 and 6,000 in 2014, so the number varies from year to year. They are mostly current and retired postal employees.
Which country gets the most letters to Santa?
Canada, France and the US each reported more than a million letters a year in a 2013 survey by the Universal Postal Union. France still reports over a million today, and Canada Post does too.
What do kids ask Santa for?
Mostly toys. Canada Post doesn't publish wish statistics, but when Finland's Santa Claus Main Post Office analyzed 6,000 letters in 2024, 67.2 percent of the wishes were toys.
Sources
- 1Canada Post: Write a letter to Santa (2026 season) (canadapost-postescanada.ca)
- 2Canada Post news release: 20 million Santa fans can't be wrong (Dec. 2011) (canada.ca)
- 3CBC News: How will the Canada Post strike affect letters to Santa? (Nov. 2024) (cbc.ca)
- 4Canada Post news release: Postal elves ready to help Santa's post office (Nov. 2013) (canada.ca)
- 5Canada Post news release via Newswire: Postal elves are ready (Nov. 2010) (newswire.ca)
- 6Canadian Stamp News: Santa's post office expecting 1.5 million letters (Nov. 2014) (canadianstampnews.com)
- 7CBC News: Santa will not be writing back this year, says Canada Post (Dec. 2024) (cbc.ca)
- 8Universal Postal Union: Santa to receive eight million letters this year (2013) (upu.int)
- 9Brut: La Poste and the letters to Père Noël (2025) (brut.media)
- 10Sonntagsblatt/epd: German Christmas post offices answer over 560,000 letters (2025) (sonntagsblatt.de)
- 11Pirkkalainen: Santa Claus' Main Post Office analyzed 6,000 letters (2024) (pirkkalainen.fi)