How to call Santa (for free) this Christmas

Telstra is once again offering free calls to Santa via its payphone network to celebrate Christmas. Until December 24, every Telstra payphone has a direct line to Santa where children can call up and tell the jolly fella what's on their Christmas list.

In order to call the big guy, dial #HO HO HO (#46 46 46) from any Telstra payphone across the country. This is the fifth year Telstra has offered its Santa Service, and the telco says over 1.5 million calls have been made to the North Pole so far.

To celebrate the anniversary, Telstra revealed a few stats:

The busiest phone booth is in Melbourne's Bourke St Mall
The most popular day to call Santa is Christmas Eve
The 1.5 million calls amounted to over four million minutes of talk time
The prime time for calling Santa is between 6pm and 7pm
Even when the Santa Service isn't running, people are calling - 100,000 calls have come through to "Santa's out-of-office" since last Christmas

Telstra made its payphones free in 2021, and started offering free WiFi access at over 3,000 payphone sites in August 2023. And free is a lot better than paying international call rates if you're trying to dial the North Pole. For some reason, the Arctic doesn't tend to be a standard inclusion on phone plans with unlimited international calls.

If you’re looking for other ways to engage your kids in the holiday spirit, then check out Google’s Santa Tracker. On Christmas Eve, you’ll be able to track Santa’s movements around the globe, and there are a couple of online puzzle games to play in the lead-up.

Looking for a new NBN plan?

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Alex Choros

Managing Editor + Group Telco Editor | X | Instagram | Threads | LinkedIn

Alex Choros is the Managing Editor of WhistleOut Australia and an award-winning journalist. He's been writing about consumer technology for over a decade and is an expert on the Australian telco sector, to the point where he knows far too many phone and internet plans by heart. In addition to leading the WhistleOut editorial team, Alex is responsible for ruining the office Sonos with his troubled taste in music.

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