Telstra has kicked off Christmas with a payphone initiative to give Free Calls to Santa until December 24 from the 15,000 odd payphones around Australia.

Your kids can call Santa, Mrs Claus, and Santas Elf just by picking up any Payphone and calling #464646, that’s # HO HO HO of course.

They can then press 1 to speak to Santa, 2 to speak to Mrs Claus and 3 for an Elf. I’m tipping Santa will be the most popular.

It’s a fun idea, but also a great educational tool, because think about it – do your kids even know what a Payphone is?

Do your kids know it’s free to make calls within Australia from a Payphone?

So if they’re lost, miss a bus, get off at the wrong train station and their mobile phone is dead or they lost it, thanks to “that time they called Santa” they will know how to use a Payphone!

Because it’s a time of giving, Telstra is also donating $1 to the Salvation Army for every call that is made to Santa’s Workshop.

Pretty cool.

And here’s a tip. If you didn’t know, on the Payphone locator, the phone number of every payphone is listed – so you can even call your kids so they can hear what a good old fashioned phone call was like.

While the kids are talking to Santa, you can take advantage of the sweet free wifi too🙂