La Poste (Secrétariat du Père Noël)

Lettre au Père Noël (2026) — Letter to Père Noël from France

Lettre au Père Noël — how to write to Père Noël via La Poste's Secrétariat du Père Noël, the postal address, mailing deadline, and the guaranteed personal reply.

Last verified against La Poste (Secrétariat du Père Noël) sources: May 2026

Père Noël's address in France

Père Noël 1 rue du Ciel Étoilé 33500 Libourne France

Copy the address exactly — extra punctuation or missing lines can route the letter to the wrong sorting office.

Mailing deadline

December 20

Reply rate

guaranteed

Postage required

No (free)

Reply languages

French, English (on request), Braille

What makes this program different

→La Poste's Secrétariat du Père Noël has run since 1962 — one of the oldest official Santa-letter programs in the world.
→No stamp needed from within France. La Poste handles postage in both directions.
→Every letter with a return address gets a personalised reply card signed by Père Noël.
→The Libourne office processes over a million letters every December — write early to give the elves a chance.

While you wait for Santa's reply

Once the letter is mailed, the wait begins. On Christmas Eve, you can watch Santa fly his sleigh through France in real time on our free Santa tracker. It's a privacy-first simulation that runs in your browser, no signup, no tracking — and we've been refining it for years.

A short history of the France Père Noël letter program

The Secrétariat du Père Noël opened in 1962, set up by Minister of Posts Jacques Marette after letters addressed simply to 'Père Noël' had been piling up at sorting offices for years with no system to handle them. His sister, the writer Françoise Dolto, helped draft the first official replies. France beat almost every other country to a formal Santa-letter service.

The service was based in Libourne, near Bordeaux, because the head of the local post office volunteered to host it. It has stayed there ever since, run each November and December by a seasonal team of around sixty postal workers — most of them retired posties who come back specifically for the Santa shift.

Volume hovers around one and a half million letters a year, including emails sent through the laposte.fr/pere-noel portal. Every letter with a return address gets a personalised reply on the famous illustrated card — printed in France, signed in Père Noël's red ink, and one of the most consistent Santa replies in Europe.

What kids in France traditionally ask for

🎁French wishlists feature Playmobil, LEGO, and homegrown brands like Smoby and Janod. Books and bandes dessinées (Astérix, Tintin, Lucky Luke) appear on almost every list.
🎁French Christmas Eve dinner is the big event — réveillon — and kids leave a clementine, a glass of milk, and sometimes a piece of bûche de Noël for Père Noël by the sapin (tree).
🎁Shoes go under the tree the night of December 24 — historical tradition has kids leaving shoes for Père Noël to fill with small gifts, with the main presents arriving the next morning.
🎁Older French kids increasingly ask for video games (Nintendo Switch dominates) and Decathlon sportswear, especially football kit for PSG, Marseille, or Lyon.

Sample letter template (France)

A starting point — change the names, the gift list, and the kind thing you did this year. Père Noël likes specifics over generic wish lists.

French

Cher Père Noël,

Je m'appelle [prénom] et j'ai [âge] ans. J'habite à [ville].

J'ai été bien sage cette année. J'ai [quelque chose de précis — aidé mes parents, été gentil avec mon frère, bien travaillé à l'école].

Pour Noël j'aimerais beaucoup :
- [vœu principal]
- [vœu plus petit]
- [petit vœu]

Je laisserai un verre de lait et une clémentine pour toi, et une carotte pour les rennes. Fais bon voyage à travers la France !

Bisous,
[prénom]

PS : Mon adresse est [adresse] pour que tu puisses me répondre.

English

Dear Father Christmas,

My name is [name] and I am [age] years old. I live in [city].

I have been good this year. I [something specific — helped my parents, was nice to my brother, worked hard at school].

For Christmas I would love:
- [main wish]
- [smaller wish]
- [small wish]

I will leave a glass of milk and a clementine for you, and a carrot for the reindeer. Have a safe journey across France!

Love,
[name]

PS: My address is [address] so you can write back.