Post Office to Send Utahns Holiday Card With Time and Money-Saving Tips

The shopping. The stress. The wrapping. The decorating. The in-laws. Holiday fun for some, small headaches for others.

Help is on the way. The U.S. Postal Service will mail 110 million greeting cards to households across the country this week, offering simple solutions for holiday challenges.

“Everyone can use a little extra help around the holidays,” said Wichita Postmaster Mark Talbott. “This year’s holiday guide focuses on the many ways customers can save time and money, including mailing from home and requesting a free pickup of their holiday packages The holiday guide is one more way for us to help families enjoy the best the season has to offer.”

This is the fourth year the Postal Service has created a special holiday guide for consumers. Unlike the guides of holidays past, this year’s guide is designed to look more like a greeting card. And instead of a series of quick takes on products and services, the card sends recipients to the Internet and usps.com.

The Postal Service website, usps.com, is like a Post Office that’s always open, available to customers at a time and place convenient for them. The card highlights some of the most popular services offered online that will give consumers something they can really use during the holidays.

In the time it takes to download a tune or a video onto an iPod, customers can:

Pay postage
Print shipping labels
Request free package pickup
Build personalized greeting cards
Create holiday postage
Order free, environmentally friendly packaging
Find Post Office locations and hours

Customers also can check on recommended mailing dates to make sure packages arrive safely and on time for the holidays. First-Class Mail and Priority Mail should be sent by Dec. 20. The recommended date for sending items by Express Mail is Dec. 22. And the date for sending holiday cheer by Parcel Post, the most economical service, is Dec. 15.

Visit the Holiday Press Room at usps.com.

# # #

Please Note: For broadcast quality video and audio, photo stills and other media resources, visit the USPS Newsroom at www.usps.com/news.

An independent federal agency, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that visits every address in the nation, 146 million homes and businesses, six days a week. It has 37,000 retail locations and relies on the sale of postage, products, and services to pay for operating expenses, not tax dollars. The Postal Service has annual revenues of $75 billion and delivers nearly half the world’s mail.