by Mateo from San José asks Santa about his elves, learns about Costa Rica’s biodiversity, and hears about the Tope parade and Portal de Belén nativity tradition
Dear Santa, my name is Mateo and I am eight years old. I live in San José, Costa Rica, where my tío says our tiny country has more different kinds of animals and plants than some places twenty times our size.
Dear Mateo, I have noticed that myself while flying over your beautiful, crowded rainforests, and your tío is entirely correct to be proud of it.
Santa, I have three questions.
My first question is, do you have Christmas elves? My little sister wants to know exactly how many, because she says she has counted seventeen in movies and thinks there must be more.
There are many more than seventeen, Mateo, though I have honestly lost precise count over the centuries. Your sister’s instincts are correct, though. It is a very large, very dedicated team.
My second question is about our forests. My teacher says Costa Rica has an incredible number of different plants and animals for such a small country. Is that true?
It is true, Mateo. Costa Rica is home to an extraordinary amount of biodiversity, thanks to its rainforests, cloud forests, and protected national parks, holding a remarkable percentage of the entire world’s known species in a very small area. Flying over that dense green canopy each December is genuinely breathtaking.
My third question is about the Portal de Belén. My family sets up an elaborate nativity scene every year, bigger than anyone else’s on our street, and we visit our neighbors’ too. Why is that so important here?
The Portal de Belén, the nativity scene, holds deep importance in Costa Rican Christmas tradition, Mateo, with families often building elaborate displays and visiting each other’s homes to admire them together, alongside the lively Tope horse parade held before Christmas. It is a wonderful example of a whole community sharing in each other’s celebrations, house by house.
Merry Christmas, Santa.
Your friend,
Mateo Vargas
San José, Costa Rica
P.S. Will you visit our Portal de Belén this year?
I always do, Mateo. It would be a genuine shame to miss it.
