The little red letterbox, which discreetly appeared at the beginning of December on the gate of a bourgeois house on rue Louis Pasteur (the man who invented the vaccine against rabies), has just "evaporated" into nothing. But it seems that its promises have been kept.
Two of Santa's little helpers, Steven Marques and Steve Freis, initiated the adventure in the midst of a global pandemic.
"If we had been in the shoes of the children who wrote to Father Christmas, we would have liked to have had an answer", Steven Marques explains. He admits that as a child, he himself "would have always wanted to write to Santa Claus but never did". But magic Christmas was shattered for Steve the day he saw his mother "hiding presents under the bed".
So when Steve came up with the idea of capturing children's wishes and giving them a wonderful follow-up in return, Steven ran into Santa's workshop in the basement, crafting a beautiful letterbox.
It's a piece of exterior decoration that has been much appreciated by many, including actors of the Theatre of Esch (living across the street from the house), but also by many older children who have used the letterbox to let the helpers know that "it's always a pleasure for the eyes to pass by your house".
The rain had an effect (just a mailbox design error) but did not alter the messages. Logically, children's letters and drawings ask for little cars, Lego, ballerina shoes, a "police disguise" but also the latest iPhone, a laptop, a tablet, the Nintendo Switch and even a "Rolex".
Most of the messages had their writers living far away (Luxembourg, Bourglinster, Pétange, etc.). There was a superb drawing of the house by a young neighbour, a word of congratulations from a municipal agent scribbled on tissue paper, or dreams transcribed on a piece of pastry wrapping paper with burnt edges.
The coronavirus is clearly mentioned in several children's letters. Most of the letters "ask for nothing but simply write nice thoughts or just wish happy holidays and above all good health", says Steven.
The very first envelope he opened touched him immensely. A 3-year-old boy wrote together with his father: "I was very well-behaved and for this reason I hope that we have a better year so that we can see my grandmother again". Above a carefully coloured rainbow, a child's certainty for 2021 is expressed in five words: "Everything will be all right".
