Monday was the busiest day of the year for dropping off mail, according to the U.S. Postal Service.
The country’s 37,000 post offices expected to receive almost 1 billion pieces of mail, mostly packages and gifts.
They expected about 275 million cards and letters to be dropped off Monday, about three times the normal daily volume.
Wednesday will be the busiest day for letter carriers delivering those pieces of mail.
In Denver, the downtown post office handled about 110,000 letters and cards, plus about 4,500 packages.
“We were staffed for it,” said Derik Sharpe, a supervisor. “We had most of it shipped out of here by 1:30 p.m. We staggered our staff beginning at 1 a.m. through 8 p.m.”
Mail to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan set a record this year, four times the normal volume. In fact, during the first 14 days of December, the Postal Service filled 12 additional 747 cargo aircraft with mail to the Middle East, almost one a day. The Postal Service estimated that about 20 million pounds of mail will be sent to service members around the world this holiday season.
The deadline for sending regular mail to the troops has passed. Express Mail through today will still reach the troops by Dec. 25.For domestic mail, all letters, cards and Priority Mail packages must be mailed by Dec. 20 to be delivered by Dec. 25. Express Mail can be dropped off as late as Dec. 22.
For more information, go to or call 800-275-8777.
