By Staff
Jason Cannon
Franklin County Times
You can blame it on email, the cost of postage or maybe even the lack of proper stationary.
Whatever the reason, letters addressed and mailed to Santa Claus this year have dropped by nearly 80 percent this year at the Russellville Post Office.
Russellville Postmaster Earl Wilcher said the downtown facility typically processes around 40 letters annually, but as of yesterday morning had only received eight.
"I'm not sure why it fell off so much this year," Wilcher said. "I don't know if parents just aren't reminding their kids to get the letters in or what, but it's way down from what we usually see."
With only two mailing days left, it's not likely the Russellville location will hit their annual average, but Wilcher said those who did write letters got a response.
Mail Supervisor Kelly Culpepper reads each letter – before sending them to Santa Claus, of course – and makes sure Mr. Christmas sends each child a personal reply.
As of Friday, the number of letters mailed countywide would have a hard time filling up Santa's mailbox.
Five letters to Santa found their way to the Phil Campbell post office, which is about average for that location. Vina didn't get any and Red Bay got four, which is also about average for that location.
It's estimated that the United States Postal Service will handle more than a million letters to Santa this year nationwide.
The bearded gentleman – also known as St. Nicholas, Father Christmas, Pere Noel and dozens of other names worldwide – will receive more than 6 million letters in the mail this year, the U.N. agency that connects national post offices said Tuesday.