Community Corner

An Avalanche of Mail and Letters to Santa

This is the busiest time of year for the United States Postal Service.

Busy might not be a strong enough word to describe it, but needless to say, the United States Postal Service has it’s work cut out for it during this time of year.

“This is our busiest time of the year,” said George Flood, spokesman for the . “Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we’re projected to do about 16.5 billion pieces of mail.

“On an average day, we are getting around 540 pieces of mail a day,” said Flood. “During this time of year, we’re probably doing around 800 million.”

Find out what's happening in Little Silver-Oceanportwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

That mail, it should be pointed out, also includes millions of letters to Santa Claus, much of it addressed to the North Pole. At larger Post Offices the number of letters addressed to Santa could reach a half a million.

“We get quite bit, and at the larger offices, like in New York City, we get about a half million during the holidays,” said Flood.

Find out what's happening in Little Silver-Oceanportwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

While those letters keep a lot of postal workers busy, USPS does have a plan. In larger areas, many Santa letters are opened, read by postal workers and volunteers, and answered.

“Since they’re addressed to Santa we’re authorized to open them up,” said Flood. “We have somebody open them up, get a feel for the person writing it, and then put it into a bin or a box to be answered. We actually let people come in and read then and then if they want to, they can ‘adopt’ the letter.”

Flood said that while the USPS tries to have as many letters “adopted” as possible, it’s just impossible. The rest are sent to the mail recovery center and then moved onward.

The Post office will be open for regular hours on Saturday, and closed on Monday for the Federal holiday.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here