Every year the same thing happens. Somebody decides in the second week of December that this is the year Santa writes back, and then spends a week refreshing a tracking page. So here is the whole calendar in one place, including the dates we control and the ones nobody controls.
The earlier it’s ordered, the less you have to think about it.
More than 100 kids are on Santa’s map. Is yours?
Free letter. $6.99 shipping.
The short answer
Order a handwritten letter from Santa by December 12, 2026. Order by that date and it arrives before Christmas, or you get a full refund. That is the entire promise, and it is the only date on this page you have to remember.
The dates that actually matter
| What | Order by | Why that date |
|---|---|---|
| Handwritten letter from Santa | December 12 | Leaves time to write it by hand and for first-class mail to cross the country. Miss it and we will still write, but the guarantee is gone. |
| Handwritten letter to a rural address, or more than one child | December 5 | More envelopes, more hand-addressing, and rural routes run slower in December. |
| Free printed letter from Santa | December 12 | Same mail, same red envelope. Free letter. $6.99 shipping. |
| The price | October 15 | Not a delivery date, a money one. The early-bird date has passed: $39.99, shipping included. |
Why December 12 and not December 20
Two reasons, and neither of them is a marketing trick.
The first is that a handwritten letter takes a hand. Ours are written with a pen, in red ink, on cream parchment, one child at a time, with their name and the things you told us about them. That is not a queue that absorbs a December rush the way a printer does.
The second is the mail itself. A letter takes five to seven days by first-class mail in a normal week. December is not a normal week. The post office is moving everybody’s packages at the same time, and the last thing you want is a letter from Santa landing on December 26.
What if you are reading this in late December
Order anyway, and read the honest version: after December 12 we will write your letter and mail it, and we will tell you plainly that we cannot promise the date. Some of them land on the 23rd. Some land the week after Christmas, and a letter from Santa that arrives a few days late is still a letter from Santa. What we will not do is take your money and pretend.
The other Santa mail deadlines
If you are using a program rather than a service, the dates are theirs, not ours, and they move every year. Two worth knowing:
- USPS Operation Santa. Children’s letters are posted to Santa, adopters pick them up online, and both the letter window and the adoption window close in the first half of December. The Postal Service publishes the exact dates each season, so check their site rather than a blog post from last year.
- The North Pole, Alaska postmark. Several towns will postmark and forward a letter you write yourself. You are mailing twice, so work backwards from Christmas with a fortnight of slack.
We wrote the full comparison of every route, free to fancy, in Every Way to Get Your Kid a Letter From Santa. It is honest about where we sit in that list.
Order earlier than you think if any of this is true
- There is more than one child. Each letter is written separately, and siblings compare paper.
- A grandparent is sending it. Two households, two addresses, and often a phone call to confirm the spelling of a middle name.
- Your child reads well. An eight-year-old who already checks the handwriting will also check the postmark. Give the envelope time to travel properly.
- You want the Nice List certificate too. The full name and Santa’s signature are written by hand, and it rides in the same envelope.
Questions we get every December
Does the letter come from the North Pole? It carries a North Pole return address and a real stamp, and it is mailed from New Jersey, where the people writing it live. Your child sees the North Pole.
Can I still order after Christmas? Yes, and some people do. A letter that arrives in the quiet week between Christmas and New Year gets read more carefully than one that lands in the middle of the unwrapping.
What if it does not arrive in time? If you ordered the handwritten letter by December 12 and it misses Christmas, you get every penny back. That is what the guarantee is for.
Is there anything to send right now? Yes. The free printed letter from Santa costs nothing but the shipping, and it is the fastest way to see the paper and the envelope for yourself before December gets loud.
Free, while you are planning December
What to say when they ask if Santa is real
The word-for-word guide by age, for the year the questions start. In your inbox in a minute.
Put the date in your phone
December 12, 2026. Before then, a handwritten letter from Santa arrives before Christmas or your money back. After then, we will do our best and say so honestly.
Send a letter from Santa while December 12 is still comfortably far away, or start with the free printed letter and decide later.
