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Post Office Almost Cancels Christmas
• Politicians join elves in fight
Wednesday,
December 23, 2009
Using privacy concerns and high labor costs as a crutch, the U.S. Postal Service decided in November to stop answering letters addressed “Santa Claus, North Pole.” Members of Congress quickly intervened and the pseudo-government agency reversed its decision.
“We never wanted to spoil people’s Christmas,” an agency spokesman said. (NY Times)
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Every year letters addressed to Santa are answered by hundreds of volunteer elves in the tiny Alaskan city of North Pole, population 2000. The city is just north of Fairbanks, and in actuality is roughly 1700 miles south of the geographic region known as the North Pole. Because of privacy concerns and the fact that answering the letters (in excess of 150,000) is labor-intensive, post office officials decided to discontinue the program this year.
‘Not so fast!’ cried Alaska Senators Lisa Murkowski and Mark Begich who, along with State Representative Don Young, sent letters to Postmaster General, John Potter requesting that the post office reconsider.
Joining the fight, the elves from Santa's Mailbag, an organization that helps answers the letters. They demanded the post office immediately restore the age-old tradition, which began in 1954.
"The city was founded on the Christmas theme," said Chief Elf for Santa’s Mailbag, Gabby Gaborick. "This is our identity. This is North Pole, Alaska." (as reported by the Associated Press)
Days after the Post Office officially announced the demise of the letter-answering program, the decision was rescinded and the tradition brought back to life.
“This decision today by the Postal Service brings the Christmas spirit back to Alaska," Murkowski said.
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Explore North Pole, Alaska on Google Earth.
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