HOLIDAY SEASON TURNS BUSY FOR POST OFFICES; MONDAY IS BUSIEST DAY OF SEASON FOR POSTAL SERVICE

Santa and the reindeer may get all the press this time of year, but the U.S. Postal Service hauls the heavy load of Christmas cards and holiday packages.

Monday was expected to be the busiest day of the year at the nation's post offices. Nationwide, the Postal Service handled an estimated 280 million cards and letters Monday.

Long lines at counters were the order of the day at the Cape Girardeau Post Office. Customer after customer came in to mail Christmas cards and letters as well as packages.

"They are lined up out the door right now," Cape Girardeau Postmaster Mike Keefe said late Monday afternoon. "Today it's a zoo."

Keefe estimated his agency's regional center in Cape Girardeau would process about 350,000 pieces of mail from throughout Southeast Missouri Monday night. That is twice the normal load.

About half of that mail comes from the Cape Girardeau area, he said.

Keefe estimated the local post office handled about 10,000 to 12,000 packages, well above the 1,500 it normally handles in a day.

The postmaster said about 30 additional workers were hired to help with the Christmas mailing crunch.

In all, 210 people are employed at the local post office and the processing center, he said.

At the Cape Girardeau Post Office, customers took the wait in stride. "People, I think, understand how busy we area," said Keefe, who pitched in to wait on customers at the counter.

While Monday was the busiest day for receiving mail at the post office, it wasn't the busiest day for mail delivery. Keefe said Thursday probably would be the busiest delivery day for the post office.

Monday demonstrated that people still like to get Christmas cards and letters in the mail despite the availability of electronic mail, Keefe said. "It is something that most people still really love to do. The card companies encourage it and we do too," he said.

"Everybody likes to read it," he said of Christmas cards and letters. "In e-mail, you read it once, you file it and destroy it," said Keefe.

The postmaster said people should get their cards and packages mailed by the first part of this week to ensure that they arrive by Christmas.