Post office has advice for holiday procrastinators

Monday, Nov. 29, 1999 | 11:56 a.m.

Those who plan to send Christmas letters and packages overseas should keep these final mailing dates in mind:

Air letters, cards and parcel post by Thursday.

Air letters, cards and parcel post by Dec. 9.

Air letters, cards and parcel post by Dec. 13.

Air letters, cards and parcel post by Dec. 9.

Air letters, cards and parcel post by Thursday.

Air letters, cards and parcel post by Dec. 9.

First-class letters and cards and priority mail by Dec. 10, parcel airlift by Friday.

The deadline for mailing cards, letters and packages around the world for delivery in time for Christmas is fast approaching.

However, those who procrastinate need not despair, as long as they don't mind paying for their delay, U.S. Postal Service officials say. For a fee, the post office will guarantee on-time delivery as late as a few days before Christmas.

Those who prefer to stick to a 33-cent postage stamp or normal parcel rates can be assured that the mail they send by Postal Service deadlines through the next two weeks will reached loved ones around the world long before Christmas Eve -- even if they're going to overseas military addresses.

"We're not sure that people still need to be reminded to mail early because of the holidays, but we do it as a part of our regular customer service," Tim Purcell, spokesman for the Las Vegas branches of the Postal Service, said.

"We hire additional temporary employees during the crunch because the volume of mail this time of year is great."

On an ordinary day in Las Vegas an average of 7.2 million pieces of incoming and outgoing mail -- both letters and packages -- pass through the main post office on Sunset Road. During the Christmas season, that number swells to an average of 9.5 million pieces per day, Purcell said.

This year between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the Postal Service expects to deliver 20 billion holiday letters, post cards and packages nationwide -- about 1 billion of which will be bound for international destinations.

Here are some premium postal services for those who decide to wait until the last minute to mail letters and packages:

Postal service officials say that when sending mail out of the United States, international addressing rules should be followed.

All addresses should be in English with Arabic numerals.

Under the name of the person to whom the mail is addressed should be the street name. The third line should feature the name of the city or town, province or state and the foreign postal codes. On the bottom line should be the name of the foreign country in capital letters.

Purcell says whether mail is traveling across town or thousands of miles away, senders can take additional steps to assure quicker delivery:

"Always put a return address on the outside, with the correct ZIP code, and write neat and clear," he said. "Make sure the address is complete. Leaving out something as simple as North or South for a street can hold up delivery of that mail.

"Another good idea is to put the mailing address and the return address inside a package as well as on the package. That way if the label falls off, we can open the package and immediately learn where it was going and where it came from."

Purcell said if senders include their phone number inside the package, the Postal Service can more easily contact them if something happens to the package.

"Doing the extra little things can save a whole lot of grief, especially around the holidays," Purcell said.