“Santa Express” ready to deliver

Local post offices providing special drop sites for letters to Santa

CHINCOTEAGUE, VA— Tis the season for children to start writing their Christmas wish lists, and the Postal Service is ready to help get those letters to Santa. For the second year in a row, Chincoteague Postmaster Christine Dore’ is spearheading the “Santa Express” program where several Shore Post Offices have a special mailbox in their lobbies just for those important missives.

“With more than 20 offices participating, it will be easy to deposit the letters in our specially marked Santa Express boxes through Wednesday, Dec. 17. Letters must have a return address to ensure the jolly, but very busy, elf can write his reply before Christmas,” Dore’ said. Smiling, she noted that response letters will have a local postmark because Santa’s elves will bring the letters back to the Shore for mailing. Dore’ said there were more than 500 letters were received last year.

Listed in alphabetical order, the offices with Santa Express boxes are: Accomac, Atlantic, Birdsnest, Cheriton, Chincoteague, Greenbackville, Greenbush, Hallwood, Machipongo, Nassawadox, Nelsonia, New Church, Onancock, Onley, Painter, Parksley, Quinby, Saxis, Temperanceville, Townsend, Wallops Island, Willis Wharf and Withams.

There are more than 100 cities in the United States with holiday-related names – from Antlers, Evergreen and Nazareth to Partridge, Rudolph and Snowflake. The most popular holiday postmark is, of course, from North Pole, Alaska. A re-mailing program allows anyone, anywhere to obtain the special North Pole postmark for Christmas cards or wish list replies. Simply enclose pre-stamped, pre-addressed envelopes in a larger stamped envelope addressed to: North Pole Christmas Cancellation, 5400 Mail Trail, Fairbanks, AK 99709-9998. Requests must arrive in Fairbanks by December 12 to ensure the mail is postmarked and delivered before Christmas.

The Postal Service anticipates Monday, Dec. 15, to be the busiest mailing day of the holiday season, with Wednesday, Dec. 17, as the busiest delivery day. In addition to this year’s traditional and contemporary Christmas issues, the Virgin and Child with the Young John the Baptist and Holiday Nutcrackers stamps, three other Holiday Celebration series stamps are also available: Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights; Kwanzaa, the celebration of family, community and culture; and Eid, the Muslim holiday stamp.

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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. 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.