Santa Claus also keeps up with the times. Anyone who writes to the St. Nicholas post office in Saarland will now also find a QR code in the reply letter, said Sabine Gerecke, head of the children's letter campaign in the St. Nicholas festival committee, on Monday.

If you scan the code with your smartphone, you can then "hear the voice of Santa Claus" reading the letter. The replies to several thousand letters from children that have already been received will be sent out from December 2nd. "The children should receive the first reply letters around St. Nicholas Day."

At Christmas 2021, the volunteers responded to 30,711 letters from children from a total of 43 countries - more than ever before. For more than 50 years, children have been writing "To St. Nicholas" in the small town in the municipality of Großrosseln near the French border. According to Deutsche Post, it is the oldest St. Nicholas post office in Germany. The partnership between the festival committee and Swiss Post has existed since 1967.

The spokesman for Deutsche Post in Frankfurt, Heinz-Jürgen Thomeczek, said: "As far as I know, this is the first time in the world that Santa Claus reads out his answer via QR code. Something really great for every child."