<P> According to the Universal Postal Union (UPU)'s 2007 study and survey of national postal operations, the United States Postal Service (USPS) has the oldest Santa letter answering effort by a national postal system . The USPS Santa letter answering effort started in 1912 out of the historic James Farley Post Office in New York, and since 1940 has been called "Operation Santa" to ensure that letters to Santa are adopted by charitable organizations, major corporations, local businesses and individuals in order to make children's holiday dreams come true from coast to coast . Those seeking a North Pole holiday postmark through the USPS, are told to send their letter from Santa or a holiday greeting card by 10 December to: North Pole Holiday Postmark, Postmaster, 4141 Postmark Dr, Anchorage, AK 99530 - 9998 . </P> <P> In 2006, according to the UPU's 2007 study and survey of national postal operations, France's Postal Service received the most letters for Santa Claus or "Père Noël" with 1,220,000 letters received from 126 countries . France's Postal Service in 2007 specially recruited someone to answer the enormous volume of mail that was coming from Russia for Santa Claus . </P> <P> Other interesting Santa letter processing information, according to the UPU's 2007 study and survey of national postal operations, are: </P> <Ul> <Li> Countries whose national postal operators answer letters to Santa and other end - of - year holiday figures, and the number of letters received in 2006: Germany (500,000), Australia (117,000), Austria (6,000), Bulgaria (500), Canada (1,060,000), Spain (232,000), United States (no figure, as statistics are not kept centrally), Finland (750,000), France (1,220,000), Ireland (100,000), New Zealand (110,000), Portugal (255,000), Poland (3,000), Slovakia (85,000), Sweden (150,000), Switzerland (17,863), Ukraine (5,019), United Kingdom (750,000). </Li> <Li> In 2006, Finland's national postal operation received letters from 150 countries (representing 90% of the letters received), France's Postal Service from 126 countries, Germany from 80 countries, and Slovakia from 20 countries . </Li> <Li> In 2007, Canada Post replied to letters in 26 languages and Deutsche Post in 16 languages . </Li> <Li> Some national postal operators make it possible to send in e-mail messages which are answered by physical mail . All the same, Santa still receives far more letters than e-mail through the national postal operators, proving that children still write letters . National postal operators offering the ability to use an on - line web form (with or without a return e-mail address) to Santa and obtain a reply include Canada Post (on - line web request form in English and French), France's Postal Service (on - line web request form in French), and New Zealand Post (on - line web request form in English). In France, by 6 December 2010, a team of 60 postal elves had sent out reply cards in response to 80,000 e-mail on - line request forms and more than 500,000 physical letters . </Li> </Ul>

Who came up with the idea of santa