The 25 Strangest days of Christmas Day 21 - Santa’s Real Address: How Canada Became Christmas HQ

0:00 Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome back to the Strange History Podcast and

0:03 Speaker 1: day twenty one of our Victorian Christmas countdown the twenty

0:06 Speaker 1: five Strangest Days of Christmas. We are in the home stretch.

0:10 Speaker 1: Today we go to Canada. Canada has an official Santa

0:14 Speaker 1: postal code. It's literally ho ho ho, and if you

0:18 Speaker 1: send a letter to Santa Claus North Pole volunteers will

0:21 Speaker 1: write you back in more than thirty languages, including Braille.

0:26 Speaker 1: This began in nineteen seventy four when Canadian postal workers

0:30 Speaker 1: in Montreal noticed letters to Santa arriving at random offices.

0:35 Speaker 1: They took it upon themselves to answer them, and today

0:38 Speaker 1: over fifteen thousand volunteers handle nearly two million letters each year. So, yes, Virginia,

0:45 Speaker 1: there is a Santa Claus, and he's bilingual, unionized, and

0:49 Speaker 1: based in Quebec.

0:51 Speaker 2: Send your wish list to Santa's mailroom. Guaranteed response unless

0:54 Speaker 2: you ask for a pony or tax reform including cookies

0:58 Speaker 2: may guarantee faster processing times if you receive cold on Christmas.

1:03 Speaker 2: The Canadian Postal Service is not responsible for your poor

1:07 Speaker 2: life choices.

1:08 Speaker 1: Tomorrow brings Day twenty two. Almost there, folks, don't forget

1:13 Speaker 1: to subscribe, Santa would approve