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If we got an exclusive with Santa and could ask only one question it definitely wouldn’t be this, but gives us 10 or so and – to gain some insight into this critical part of his job – we’d ask: “Is the owner that giant and now illegal Santa’s mailbox on your nice or naughty list?” Aside from whatever glow people get looking at what’s the world’s tallest such receptacle for letters, sex toy Christmas catalogues and Trump campaign porn sent yet again to the wrong place (which, despite the seeming absurdity, obviously worked), there’s the fact that 1) Po Lin Lee paid 500,000 kroner out of her pocket for the mailbox and 2) since Nov. 1 has been paying the city of Longyearbyen a fine of 500 kroner a day for not taking it down. We’re not saying that’ll magically make up for all the city’s financial woes, but if official take their time removing it they could reduce every resident’s power/vehicle/etc. fees by roughly 2,500 kroner a year. Just saying. On the other hand, it’s possible the neighbors are feeling heated by the bright lights and it’s a bit weird she’s totally dropped off the radar for months. And that, frankly, is the truly naughty bit of her box – tourists and others tend to drop letters in there thinking they’ll be delivered (despite a notice put up at some point informing people it’s not a real mailbox) and it often takes Lee months to bring the mail to the post office. We’re not Santa, so we won’t judge – instead we’ll offer the far more useful service of betting odds: neither she nor the city does anything to address the situation until after the new year (since it’s already there and ’tis the season)…
