Post office delivers Santa letters

Published: December 11, 2006 | 5174th good news item since 2003

Letters to Santa delivered by the U.S. Postal Service provided proof of his existence in the 1947 version of “The Miracle on 34th Street” and children around the world continue to send him letters.

The U.S. Postal Service has even drawn up a regulation to cover those letters. It appears in the Administrative Support Manual 274.5k:

“The Postal Service or authorized third party may open, read and respond to mail, or contact the sender, regarding correspondence that is addressed to “Santa Claus,” “the North Pole” or similar seasonal characters or destinations and which would otherwise be undeliverable as addressed.”

Isabella Postmaster Melissa Davis said she will personally make sure that letters to Santa that come to her post office are taken care of. She said Santa even responds to children who include a self-addressed stamped envelope with their letters to him.

Of course, all holiday mailings need to be done in a timely fashion so they reach their destinations before Christmas. The first important deadline to remember is this coming Monday. “Our deadlines to the APO (military) addresses for Priority mail is (today) and for Express mail to the military it’s Dec. 19,” Davis said.

Davis said the Isabella post office will be holding a holiday open house from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 15.

“We are having our holiday stamps on display and we are having holiday refreshments in the lobby,” Davis said. “I’m also holding an informational session on building holiday cards on-line. You can build them and mail them on-line. You can even order gift tags and gift cards, and estimate all shipping costs beforehand.”

Davis said there are fewer mailing days available this year. “The post office is actually closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, so they’ve lost a day for mailing. The last day to mail first class mail for delivery before Christmas is Dec. 19. The post office will deliver Express mail on Christmas Day, but it would have to be mailed by Dec. 23,” Davis said.

Published in Christmas
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