It was buried at the back of David Asquino’s closet – a box filled with childhood dreams and Christmas wishes that didn’t make it to the North Pole. When Asquino opened the box he was “surprised and disappointed” to find about 100 sealed envelopes destined for Santa Claus.

“When a kid opens a letter from Santa, it is one of the greatest things, so to deprive them of that is kind of disgusting,” the Toronto man says. The box was left behind by his ex-girlfriend, a Canada Post employee who was supposed to help Santa respond to those letters a decade ago.

The Santa writing program was launched 35 years ago, and since then, Canada Post employees and retirees have helped to deliver 25 million letters to the North Pole. Volunteer elves help Santa respond to each of those letters, but it doesn’t always work out. In 2007, for example, several Ottawa-area families were shocked to find inappropriate comments and remarks in Santa’s responses. Canada Post cracked down and instituted a more vigorous tracking procedure for North Pole-bound mail, but that was several years after this batch was lost.

“I just want to make sure that something is sent back to the families,” Asquino explains. “Something that says ‘sorry, the elves misplaced it, here he is,’” he says, referring to a response from Santa Claus.

“Santa didn’t get any of these letters at all.”

He called Canada Post to report the box of mail and an investigator picked it up and launched an investigation. “Canada Post takes this matter seriously and is investigating,” says Jon Hamilton, a spokesperson for the Crown corporation.

“Santa requested the letters be sent to the North Pole as soon as he heard. The weekend winter weather helped us complete that special delivery. Postal elves are awaiting Santa’s instructions.”

Which means 12 years and four months after they wrote to St. Nick, several teenagers and young adults could finally get the response they’ve been waiting for.