Seeking Santa's Support　　　

Jim slipped a face mask inside the greeting card he sent to Santa from Taiwan. Alina, 5, asked in her Santa letter written with an adult's help that he please use the front door when he drops in, because the back door is reserved for grandma and grandpa to minimize their risk of infection.

"Dear Father Christmas," 10-year-old Lola wrote, "My mother is a care-giver and sometimes I am scared for her," signing off her handwritten letter with, "Take care of yourself Father Christmas, and of the Elves."

The emotional toll wrought by the pandemic is palpable in the deluge of "Dear Santa" letters pouring into a southwest France post office that sorts and responds to his mail from around the world.

Arriving by the tens of thousands, the letters, notes and cards are revealing windows into the tender minds of their young authors, and of adult Santa fans also asking for respite and happiness at the end of a year packed with sickness and tumult.

In theory, and often in practice, any letter addressed to "Pere Noel" — French for Father Christmas — and slipped into any post box around the world is likely to wend its way to the sorting office in France's Bordeaux region, which has been handling his mail since 1962. His secretariat of workers (who call themselves "Elves") spends November and December slicing open envelopes and replying to 12,000 letters per day on his behalf.

Once the first letters were opened at the secretariat on Nov. 12, it quickly became apparent how the pandemic is weighing on children, says chief Elf Jamila Hajji. Along with the usual pleas for toys and gadgets were also requests for vaccines, visits from grandparents and life to return to the way it was.

"The kids have been very affected by COVID, more than we think. They are very worried. And what they want most of all, apart from presents, is really to be able to have a normal life, the end of COVID, a vaccine," Hajji says. "The letters to Father Christmas are a sort of release for them." (AP)

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週刊英語学習紙　毎日ウィークリー