Postal Service Santas deliver plenty of cheer on Christmas Day

Monday, Dec. 21, 1998 | 11:14 a.m.

On Christmas Day, about 1,700 pieces of U.S. Postal Service Express Mail will be delivered locally -- all by Santa Claus.

Or, so it will seem, as about 40 postal workers will dress as the jolly ol' elf as they deliver Christmas-Day mail throughout the Las Vegas valley.

The Santa Express promotion, now in its seventh year, will for the first time include all mail marked for express delivery on Christmas Day, said Dennis DeLuca, operations support specialist at the USPS, who has coordinated the program the last five years.

"Last year, we had just 48 packages for our Santa delivery program, but we had 1,700 Express Mail deliveries on Christmas Day," he said. "So, we decided this year that all deliveries this Christmas will be done by a Santa.

"'It will allow us to continue a tradition which pretty much has been used for children, but now offer something extra to the whole community. It will spread more joy to everyone."

In the past, customers arranged for postal Santas weeks in advance at the main post office on Sunset Road. This year, the Yuletide program is available at all area post offices, but packages for Santa delivery can be sent out only on Thursday and only via Express Mail.

The Express Mail rate starts at $10.75 for eight ounces. A 20-pound gift would cost just under $41 to deliver, while a maximum 70-pound package would cost just under $99.

Postal Service spokesman Tim Purcell said it won't cost the government a whole lot extra to employ the workers on Christmas Day.

If Friday is a regular work day for the postal employees, they will get their regular pay -- the amount they would have received had they taken the day off. If Friday is their regular day off, they will earn overtime pay, Purcell said.

Postal Santa participation is on a voluntary basis, and female mailmen have the option of dressing as Mrs. Claus or as a bearded Santa.

It costs the Postal Service between $50 and $55 apiece to rent Santa outfits for employees.

DeLuca said the biggest reward his workers got in past years was pulling their mail trucks into driveways and seeing the looks on the faces of children as they received special gifts that Santa apparently forgot to bring the night before.

"Our employees are giving up time with their families on Christmas morning to do these deliveries," DeLuca said. "They usually spend extra time posing for photos to add to the emotional moment."

In the past, gifts delivered by postal Santas ranged from small packages to fully assembled bicycles and did not need to be wrapped. This year, all packages must be properly wrapped for mailing, because the Santa Express mail is being mixed with other Express Mail, Purcell said.