Apology as Santa letter returned to senders address

An Post has apologised after a three-year old girl’s letter to Santa was sent back to her — nearly a month after she had posted it to Lapland.

Dublin publican Alan Campbell said he was unhappy with how An Post responded to his complaint after his eight-year-old daughter found her little sister’s Santa letter when she came down the stairs a fortnight ago.

The father of three said his children had all posted separate Santa letters on December 16 last, but that the return of one of the letters prompted questions from his eight-year-old.

“She started asking questions as to why her sister’s letter didn’t make it to Lapland, and why her letter got there but the other one didn’t,” said Mr Campbell. “Luckily for us we had visited Santa in Dundrum a few days before we posted the letter so he knew what they wanted, and that’s how Santa came. In that sense it’s all’s well that ends well.”

Mr Campbell said An Post made contact with him after he posted his complaint on Twitter. He said he was told his complaint has prompted an investigation into the matter, but he has not heard anything further since then.

In a statement, An Post said that it helped Santa reply to 140,000 letters this year and that it was “very upset” to learn of what happened with Mr Campbell’s daughter.

“It simply should not have happened. It is as simple as that. No excuses,” the statement read. “Since learning and discussing the issue in more detail with the child’s father, an investigation has been under way.

“We have been doing this for so long that it runs with military precision and great attention to detail.”

An Post said it twice offered to arrange for Santa to compose and send a very special letter to Mr Campbell’s daughter and to include some details of what his daughter received at Christmas, along with a special token. However, this offer was declined.