Have you ever wondered how letters addressed to Santa Claus find their way to The North Pole? It’s this simple: The mailman delivers them.

According to Mike Newton, a postal worker at the Hardwick Post Office, letters that come in addressed to Santa Claus go through a special procedure and are forwarded to a special unit at a branch of the Macon post office. From there, Santa’s helpers take over to get the letters to their intended addressee.

“Kids Yule Love in Macon takes care of the letters,” Newton said.

Kids Yule Love then makes sure the writers of the letters have their requests in the proper place. The procedures are much the same all over the United States, as each U.S. Post Office routes letters to a wide network of helpers, each intent on helping the letters get to Santa.

One letter that Newton received while working at a post office in another town even made local headlines as a Macon television news crew followed the granting of a Christmas wish to the child in nearby Wilkinson County.

As far as the post office itself, Newton said it is business as usual.

“It’s been busy, but we’ve been moving people in and out,” Newton said. “We’ve had some overflow from the Milledgeville Post Office and have about 12 to 15 people in line at a time.”

Newton said that incoming mail volume is down mainly because of new rules at the prison system limiting the number of packages inmates can receive and the closure of Rivers State Prison. Overall though, business is brisk.

“There’s one more week to go,” Newton said.

There isn’t really a time to go to the post office and avoid a crowd, as the Hardwick branch is busy all day, according to Newton.

“We’re busy from opening to close,” he said. “Just get it on in, and hopefully everything will arrive on time. Volume appears to be pretty normal compared with other years.”

Local residents are still shipping packages including some non-traditional ones. Newton said that a few times this season, his office has even shipped pigeons.

“We shipped pigeons to, of all places, New York and Minnesota,” he said. “You would think New York would have enough pigeons, but apparently these are expensive pigeons. They were a guaranteed overnight delivery and I am sure they made it OK.”

Newton said there is still time to ship packages via mail, although he recommends shipping overnight.

“I would use Express Mail, for locations more than 600 miles away, which is guaranteed overnight, even on Christmas Day in some regions,” he said. “If you are shipping in the southeast, you would be fine using Priority Mail.”