The Christmas post office in the Lower Franconian town of Himmelstadt has already answered about 65,000 letters to Santa – the most it has ever handled.
And not all of them are from children.
“I’m totally frustrated because people are confusing us with a mail order service,” said the head of the office, Rosemarie Schotte. “We are here to answer children’s letters to Santa, not the Christmas mail of adults.”
The office, which is the only one in Bavaria, was completely overwhelmed.
“We are hanging on by a thread,” said Schotte.
The same trend has been seen in Lower Saxony.
“Single people over 40 are writing ever more often to Father Christmas – although most without a return address,” said Wolfgang Dipper, of the Christmas post office in Himmelspfort.
Most of them just wanted to shake off some emotional baggage and didn’t need an answer, Dipper said.
“We try to comfort them with a few nice words,” he said.
There are seven Christmas post offices set up across Germany. Workers there make a point of trying to answer all letters sent to the Weihnachtsmann.
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