French Santa Claus receives more than a million letters from all over the world
As RFI notes, on the eve of Christmas, French parents storm toy stores to fulfill their children's requests and not break their faith in the good Santa Claus, who spares no effort or expense on gifts. Provided, of course, that the children behaved well all year. According to Radio France Internationale (RFI), postal workers come to the aid of parents and Santa Claus, collecting children's requests and writing replies to them. These 60 elves work tirelessly, but their strength has been insufficient lately.
Last year, for example, the post office of the small town of Libourne in southern France received 1.2 million children's letters sent from 140 countries. Of these, 129,000 were composed electronically, as the French Santa Claus now has his own website (pere-noel.laposte.fr).
This website was opened by La Poste, and children can publish a New Year's story of their own creation, play New Year's games, and participate in a contest to create their own New Year's cartoon. There are also recipes for Christmas cuisine and tips for making New Year's decorations. Everyone is invited to send a letter by December 22 if they want to receive a reply in time.
Innovations have not bypassed adults either. Having spent money on children's gifts, they can rent them and then return them. What can you do – it's a crisis. The creator of the website E-loue, Alexandre Voug, explains his idea: "Since mid-November, we decided to offer our clients an innovation: rental of New Year's gifts. Thus, they can test the gift before deciding whether to shell out money for it or not." According to the site's statistics, the most popular rental gifts are cameras, video cameras, video games, tablets, and other electronics. In addition, the same site allows you to rent Christmas garlands and tree decorations.
In general, the internet is becoming an increasingly popular means of New Year's frenzy: 32 million French people (almost half) buy Christmas gifts while sitting at home in front of their computers. Their total cost amounts to 13.5 billion euros, which in 2016 will not reach French stores. Compared to last year, Christmas online shopping grew by 10%, despite the fact that overall the French do not plan to spend more on gifts than before. Surveys show that the average French person will spend 195 euros on gifts this year, which is 3 euros less than in 2015.