Pretend for a moment that you’re 7 years old.

It’s a week or two before Christmas, and you want to make sure that Santa Claus gets your Christmas list.

Since he doesn’t have an official e-mail address yet, you do the next best thing – write a good old-fashioned letter addressed to The North Pole, stick a stamp on it, and put it in the mailbox.

Imagine your surprise when you get a response from St. Nick himself a few days later, courtesy of The US Postal Service.

“Every one of those letters is answered locally,” said Luverne postal clerk Dawn Arnold. “We have special stickers and stamps to send back on the envelopes, and several responses from ‘Santa.’ Those change every couple of years.”

So far, the Luverne Post Office has received about 24 letters to the jolly old elf this year.

“It’s really a neat and fun thing for us to do at Christmas,” she said.