Tracked Santa Letter Ends Up In Snowmass
Priority Mail To Old St. Nick Tracked Online
POSTED: 10:19 a.m. MST December 20, 2002
UPDATED: 3:23 p.m. MST December 20, 2002
SNOWMASS, Colo. -- Got a letter for Santa? FedEx will send it to Snowmass.
David McCreery, a 24-year-old Michigan State University computer
science graduate, decided to drop a mailer addressed to "Santa Claus, North Pole," in a FedEx box near Chicago. He created a Web site to track the letter's route.
More than 40,000 people from the Azores Islands to Croatia
monitored the Santa letter on McCreery's Web site as it took a
two-day trip to be delivered to an "S. Claus" -- in Snowmass.
"Dedicated employees went above and beyond to ensure it was
delivered," FedEx spokesman Ed Coleman said.
McCreery's letter had asked Santa for a Nikon deluxe digital camera and noted that "John Ashcroft ... was making it easier for (Santa) to keep track of who's naughty and who's nice."
The priority letter first showed up on the FedEx tracking system at 7:06
p.m. Dec. 3 in Stevensville, Mich., and was on a FedEx loading ramp
in South Bend, Ind., about 90 minutes later.
FedEx employees normally don't deliver letters without ZIP codes
but decided to send it to FedEx headquarters in Memphis, Tenn., the
next afternoon.
The letter -- one of 5 million FedEx packages and parcels handled
worldwide on an average day -- arrived at a sorting facility in
Memphis Dec. 4. That evening, it was on a plane to Denver.
Early Dec. 5, the Santa letter left Denver International Airport
and took seven hours getting to Basalt. It was placed on a delivery
truck, and 39 minutes later, the tracking record shows, an "S.
Claus" signed for the letter.
But directories show no listing for an S. Claus in or around
Snowmass.
Coleman wouldn't say who S. Claus was. He cited customer
confidentiality, adding cryptically: "That's part of the mystery
of Christmas."
McCreery said he was satisfied with his experiment.
"I just want to know if I'm going to get my camera," McCreery
said.
It is not known why the letter wasn't sent to North Pole, Colo. -- about 130 miles south of Snowmass. Perhaps an "S. Claus" isn't there? If not, where could he be?
Additional Web Resources:
David McCreery, a 24-year-old Michigan State University computer
science graduate, decided to drop a mailer addressed to "Santa Claus, North Pole," in a FedEx box near Chicago. He created a Web site to track the letter's route.
More than 40,000 people from the Azores Islands to Croatia
monitored the Santa letter on McCreery's Web site as it took a
two-day trip to be delivered to an "S. Claus" -- in Snowmass.
"Dedicated employees went above and beyond to ensure it was
delivered," FedEx spokesman Ed Coleman said.
McCreery's letter had asked Santa for a Nikon deluxe digital camera and noted that "John Ashcroft ... was making it easier for (Santa) to keep track of who's naughty and who's nice."
The priority letter first showed up on the FedEx tracking system at 7:06
p.m. Dec. 3 in Stevensville, Mich., and was on a FedEx loading ramp
in South Bend, Ind., about 90 minutes later.
FedEx employees normally don't deliver letters without ZIP codes
but decided to send it to FedEx headquarters in Memphis, Tenn., the
next afternoon.
The letter -- one of 5 million FedEx packages and parcels handled
worldwide on an average day -- arrived at a sorting facility in
Memphis Dec. 4. That evening, it was on a plane to Denver.
Early Dec. 5, the Santa letter left Denver International Airport
and took seven hours getting to Basalt. It was placed on a delivery
truck, and 39 minutes later, the tracking record shows, an "S.
Claus" signed for the letter.
But directories show no listing for an S. Claus in or around
Snowmass.
Coleman wouldn't say who S. Claus was. He cited customer
confidentiality, adding cryptically: "That's part of the mystery
of Christmas."
McCreery said he was satisfied with his experiment.
"I just want to know if I'm going to get my camera," McCreery
said.
It is not known why the letter wasn't sent to North Pole, Colo. -- about 130 miles south of Snowmass. Perhaps an "S. Claus" isn't there? If not, where could he be?
Additional Web Resources:
Copyright 2002 by TheDenverChannel.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
