COVER N.187 - FRANCE

Postmark: Santa Sleigh * 33500 Libourne * 2022

Posted on ?; Received on the 14h December 2022

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I'm not a believer. In fact I'm an agnostic. But one can't escape the cultural background that one had from cradle (to the grave... as the saying goes) and traditions are part of one's culture to the point that they sometimes lose their innermost signification to become but a date on the calendar when one is supposed to do this or that.

Christmas is one such occasion. For a nonbeliever, Christmas is pure folklore, tradition, and most of all a time to get enormously irritated at the mercantile hypocrisy that rules it nowadays.

This fact notwithstanding, I concede that there is an element of joy and hope in the tradition, even for someone like me, which is linked both to the religious  (again, the cultural background unto which one is born and raised) and secular ( winter, end of  cycle, a new year about to begin....) fundaments of the tradition.

And so, I embark on it and like any other person,  do what one is supposed to do these days: send out Season's greetings to friends, go out and buy presents, have dinner with my family, etc etc. The only thing I refuse to do is to watch again "The sound of Music" or "Home Alone" on TV.

And, just like last year, I wrote Santa (or better said Père Noël) a letter. 

I am glad to say that I must have behaved all year long because once again Père Noël wrote me back, to my great joy.

Santas's Cover from La Poste: a C5 envelope with Santa's Office Logo and a  pre-printed International stamp featuring Père Noël, cancelled with an also pre-printed postmark reading Santa-Sleigh 33500 Libourne. On the side another stamp mark reading Santa's Office Devoted to Children for 60 years.

Santa's Letter

Santa's gift: a connect the dots postcard.