Somehow, Santa Claus will get the message

Be it traditional snail mail, smoke signals, e-mails or telepathy all methods devised by children to communicate their gift list to Santa Claus rely on the obvious assumption that the bearded man knows everything.

After all, if he knows who was naughty and deserves coal, he must know who was good and deserves the gift they asked for.

Three-year-old Katya wrote a letter to Santa at school, which she has now pinned to a notice board in her room from where she is confident he will get the message that she wants a singing Barney.

But, just in case, she also sent him an e-mail, with the help of her parents. She now has proof that he exists because she has received a reply by return e-mail assuring her that his elves were working on her request. Aimee, five, made a card out of brown paper and decorated it with a moon and many stars. She addressed it to "Father Christmas" but did not post it because "he knows everything".

Tonight, she will be leaving the card for him to see near a mince pie and a glass of milk... and, of course, a carrot for Rudolph.

Ten-year-old Nichola and her nine-year-old sister Alice came up with another way of communicating with Santa: smoke signals.

Every year they "post" their letters in their grandmother's fireplace from where it goes to Santa. They too have proof that their system works because, some days later, they receive a card from the very man.

While creative methods of communicating with Father Christmas are endless, every year hundreds of hopeful children opt for the traditional method and make their way to one of the red post boxes around the island to drop in their hand-decorated letters to Santa Claus in Lapland, in distant Finland.

The variety of colourful letters, often with unevenly written addresses, land at Maltapost's head office from where they are forwarded to Santa.

"Maltapost has an agreement with Santa's office in Finland," explained Pierre Montebello matter-of-factly as he sits in front of a pile of letters addressed to "Santa", "Father Christmas" or "Father Xmas".

Of course, for these letters to be delivered successfully it is important that they have a stamp to Europe and address - Christmas House, Arctic Circle 96930 Rovaniemi, Finland, Mr Montebello, chief officer at Maltapost's mails and systems section, added.

But the most important information is the child's sender details, otherwise Santa will not be able to send a personalised reply.

And, we all know that Santa Claus tries to make it a point that no letter or e-mail goes unanswered...