Posting Good Cheer : Santa Ana Main Post Office : * ZIP: 92704 : * Number of people in line upon arrival: 17 : * Number of people in line upon departure: 30

This is no ordinary post office. Its six-window counter and waiting room look new and clean and rather stylish for the Postal Service--greenhouse windows along one wall with new tables and benches and high-quality fake house plants.

This is the United States Postal Service Processing and Distribution Center, the gateway for all mail traveling into, out of and within Orange County. Smart people long ago figured out that if you mail it here, it goes out quicker.

So I expected a crowd and wasn’t surprised when a friend told me there had been a long line of people waiting for the doors to open at 8:30 this particular morning.

As I drove up just before 10, fears were confirmed. Cars were parked against the red curb, which could only mean the 38-space parking lot was full.

I turned into the lot, and there were five empty spaces! Those people risking parking tickets had merely panicked.

I walked into the post office and found only 17 take-a-numbers ahead of mine. Only half of this small group had parcels to mail.

All was quiet, even tranquil. People were sitting or standing with no look of stress or impatience.

“This is going to be a piece of cake,” I said out loud, and the women next to me agreed. She had inherited her number from someone who had left seeking a less crowded post office. “I don’t know where he’s going to find anything better than this,” she said.

True. Though only three windows were open, they were calling numbers at about one every minute or so. “Actually, we’re going slower than usual,” the clerk told me. One clerk had called in sick and another had to go back home because she forgot her keys.

The rest of Christmas should be this easy.

Total time: 22 minutes