Overview
- About 5,000 letters have already reached the Christkind office in Himmelstadt and a similar number the Nikolaus office in St. Nikolaus, signaling the seasonal surge.
- Himmelstadt opens on the first Advent on November 30, while St. Nikolaus begins on December 5, with roughly 40 volunteers at each site answering every letter.
- To secure a pre-Christmas reply, schools and other groups should have mail in by December 15, with all other letters due by December 17, and complete sender details are required.
- Most responses are standardized, though leaders sometimes add personal notes to especially moving requests, and international replies are translated into multiple languages including English and French.
- Germany has seven official Christmas post offices; the Warndt/St. Nikolaus site is the oldest with a Deutsche Post partnership since 1967, and Himmelstadt handles up to 70,000 letters in a season.