Santa Claus, also known as Patrick Farmer, at Santa Claus House in North Pole, Alaska, holds some letters on Nov. 18 from children sent so far this year. (Sam Harrel/Associated Press)

The U.S. Postal Service has reversed its decision to close Santa Claus's mailbag in North Pole, Alaska, while Canada Post says its own tradition of answering children's letters to Santa is safe and not about to change.

Last week, the U.S. Postal Service announced it would drop the small Alaskan town of North Pole from its nationwide Operation Santa program, citing new security and privacy rules.

The move outraged the letter-responding "elves" in North Pole, as well as other residents in the town of 2,100, and the postal service reinstated the program there on Friday.

"We never wanted to spoil people's Christmas," USPS spokesman Ernie Swanson told the Associated Press.

"It was just a decision we had to make based on privacy concerns, and it is labour-intensive. But it's still nice that we're able to resume this and still make people's holiday."

The Canadian program, now in its 28th year, has Canada Post volunteers responding to more than one million children's letters to Santa via the Canadian postal code H0H 0H0.

"We get letters literally from all over the world addressed to Santa Claus — of course, at the North Pole — and we all know the North Pole's in Canada," Canada Post spokesman John Kane told CBC News.

In keeping with the times, children wanting to reach Santa with a more modern means of communication can email their wish lists using a form on Canada Post's website.

Tighter security rules

U.S. Postal Service officials originally said it discontinued the North Pole, Alaska, program while they were tightening security rules for its Operation Santa program nationwide.

The new rules were brought in after a postal worker in Maryland recognized an Operation Santa volunteer as a registered sex offender.

The worker intervened before the individual could answer a child's letter, but the agency viewed the scare as a reason to tighten security.

The U.S. Postal Service had already restricted its policies in such programs in 2006, including requiring volunteers to show identification.

But the Maryland episode prompted more changes, such as barring volunteers from having access to children's last names and addresses.

The agency instead removes that information from each letter and replaces the addresses with codes that match computerized addresses known only to the post office.

Postal Service officials, who consider the North Pole effort part of the agency's giant Operation Santa program, originally said the Alaska district had too few resources to deal with the time-consuming new rules and was therefore opting out.

The service's decision angered North Pole Mayor Doug Isaacson, who said the move was grinch-like in a town that takes Christmas seriously.

"It's ludicrous, it's high-handed, it's bureaucratic bungling," Isaacson told CBC News in an interview Friday, before the USPS decision was reversed.

"It's the grinch stealing Christmas. It's the little shrivelled heart that needs to get warmed up and grow."

Canadian elves screened

In Canada, Kane said Canada Post's Santa program is safe and secure, adding that its 11,000 "postal elves" are screened in advance.

"All these people are Canada Post current and former employees. Everyone who works here has to go through a screening process, including security checks," he said.

Kane said the postal service also has a logging and tracking process that allows officials to know which volunteer sent which letter.

In December 2007, Canada Post's Santa program was briefly shut down in the Ottawa area after some local children received rude and inappropriate responses from people purporting to be Santa's elves.

Officials said some minors were responsible for penning at least 10 letters to Ottawa-area children that contained profanity and descriptions of lewd acts.

With files from The Associated Press