King Charles Sends a Special Delivery to...Antarctica

It's the most wonderful time of the year...and the British royal family has been awash in festivities. King Charles recently hosted an Advent service at Westminster Abbey. His daughter-in-law, the Princess of Wales, put on her annual "Together at Christmas" concert. Queen Camilla received children for her traditional Christmas tea party at Clarence House. But this latest festive move by Buckingham Palace really takes the cake.

Per the royal's Instagram post, mail used to be received at Rothera, a research outpost in Antarctica, via a handmade letterbox. Earlier in the year, the manager of the post office had written to request a sturdier receptacle.

It seems that the petition reached King Charles' ears, because what arrived just in time for Christmas on the frozen continent? A fire truck-red post box with the monarch's royal cypher. The project was executed with the help of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and the Royal Mail. Through the program, those stationed at Rothera can send and receive letters from family and friends.

The United Kingdom maintains Rothera Research Station, a facility situated on Rothera Point, Adelaide Island in Antarctica. Per the station's website, "Rothera supports a wide range of BAS, UK university and international collaborative science programmes including the Dirck Gerritsz laboratory that is operated by the Netherlands polar research programme."

Rothera is one of of six research stations under the leadership of the BAS, which also operates a research ship, Sir David Attenborough, and a fleet of De Havilland Canada Twin Otters and one De Havilland Canada Dash-7 aircraft.

Now, my only question is, will that new mailbox send letters to Saint Nick?