Our Mail Carriers Make Magic
A couple of years ago, I helped my very young children write letters to Santa. We normally put these in our mailbox with the flag up to signify we have outgoing mail, and then, when the kids are distracted, I sneak back out to the mailbox and retrieve their letters for my memory box.
But that year, our postal worker came much earlier in the day than usual, and before I realized it, he took the letters from our mailbox. I was devastated. Those precious memories, Christmas wishes, and drawings for Santa were gone.
To my surprise, just a couple of weeks later, a different postal worker knocked on our door and hand-delivered personalized letters from Santa himself to my children, who were blown away by the surprise and thrilled to receive a response. My heart was overflowing with joy and gratitude that someone had taken the time to remember our address, get our kids’ names right, and personally deliver these Santa letters to them.
This year, when we put our letters to Santa in the mailbox, I took pictures of each letter to retain the memories but let the boys have their magic fun. Just a few days later, our mailman came to the door and checked that my three boys could not overhear before asking me to confirm the spelling of each of their names. He wanted to be sure that their names were right on their responses from Santa– little kid handwriting can be tricky to read!
Each year, especially in December, our postal workers and delivery drivers work extra hard to make this season magical in so many ways. Sure, I’ve been frustrated out of my mind over a delayed package, or one stuck in processing somewhere, or forced to print out a picture of a gift that won’t arrive until after Christmas, but the individuals who come to our door for deliveries aren’t at fault for that.
That’s why, every year, our family puts together a goody box for delivery drivers to help themselves to whenever they bring a package to our door. I’ve seen some truly impressive ones online, and while ours isn’t fancy, I do hope it shows our appreciation. I stock it with bags of chips, cookies like Chips Ahoy or Oreos, granola bars, fruit gummies, and water bottles. The box differs from year to year or even throughout the month – sometimes there’s Gatorade instead of water or satsumas from our backyard tree. I leave a sign instructing the drivers to take whatever they like, and I usually put a note in our mailbox informing postal workers to come to the door for a snack if they’d like one.
Sometimes, a delivery driver will lean close to our doorbell camera and thank us, or we get to hear their candid expressions of surprise when they see the snacks. It’s not much, but it’s an easy way to show that we’re grateful for the extra demands of the holiday shopping season!
To all the people who work so hard to make sure mail, packages, letters, and more get delivered, we THANK YOU!