Down in the dumps just weeks ago, the ”real” Father Christmas is laughing ”ho-ho-ho” again in Greenland after two Danish dads saved him from financial ruin — and thousands of children around the world from getting no answer to Christmas letters.
In November, ”Santa” found himself penniless, unable to answer the piles of small missives that pour each year into a giant red mailbox in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland.
With Christmas fast approaching and no money for stamps, writing paper or envelopes, Santa’s helpers began deserting his workshop one by one.
Father Christmas faced the prospect of being unable to reply to children’s traditional letters and wish lists — for toys and gifts in exchange for a promise of good behaviour — for the first time since the 1930s.
The local government of Greenland, a Danish territory in the Arctic, cut funding for ”Santa Claus” in 2002. Since then benefactors and Greenland’s phone company Tele Greenland have financed Santa and his workshop, Nuuk’s major tourist attraction.
Tele Greenland first got involved in 1998, when with other donors it established the Santa Claus of Greenland Foundation to make sure the popular operation would keep going.
In 2005, this non-profit organisation had a budget of 1,2-million kroner (about $213 000). But financial difficulties forced the foundation to close after last Christmas.
The post office, which is normally open throughout the year, was also shut down, leaving Greenland’s Santa ”disenfranchised and very sad”, said foundation secretary Anders Laesoee.
When they learned about this ”pitiful state” of affairs, Jon Flintholm (32) and Jakob Lundbek (35) decided to take action in order not to ”disappoint the thousands of children who write to Father Christmas every year”.
”When we heard on the radio that Santa Claus had shut up shop, we knew something had to be done. It’s unthinkable to see the ‘real’ Father Christmas bankrupt,” said Flintholm, father of three children aged one, three and 11.
Nestled on the edge of Nuuk fjord, the post office and its big red mailbox receive between 40 000 and 50 000 letters a year, as well as occasional lollipops — a Danish tradition — sweets and even hay for Santa’s reindeer.
Every December, the young and the young at heart start flocking to the thatched-roof cottage where they tuck into cinnamon buns, soft drinks and a mulled-wine drink called glogg — always hopeful of meeting ”Santa” himself.
Up to 30 volunteers generally man the office in the run-up to Christmas, reading the letters and making sure each child receives a personalised reply from Father Christmas.
Thousands of kilometres away, Flintholm and Lundbek, owners of a temporary employment agency in Aarhus in central Denmark, said it was a quick and easy decision to meet the costs of the post office.
”We can’t save all the world’s children from starvation and misery, but we can make some kids expecting a response from Father Christmas happy. The money? There’s no reason to talk about it,” Lundbek said.
He refused to disclose how much he and his partner invested in the effort, but their contribution put the post office back into action.
Busy days lie ahead — the post office has again pledged to answer every letter right down to December 24 when, tradition has it, Santa takes to the skies with his sleigh and reindeer to deliver presents to children down chimneys all over the world. — Sapa-AFP