Shoppers Wrap It Up at the Post Office

Some find the meaning of Christmas in family gatherings, in caroling, in giving, in traditional hymns and prayers.

But in post offices across Orange County on Monday, many found a certain yuletide pleasure by plopping their cards and packages on a counter and watching as they were whisked away toward Rhode Island, Virginia, Illinois, Puerto Rico, Texas, Temecula and points in between.

“Eighty Christmas cards. Eighty,” said Evelyn Atwood, 88, with quiet satisfaction after handing her stack of cards to a postal clerk in Santa Ana. “I feel great about it.”

For many Orange County residents with families and friends scattered across the map, these post-office treks become rituals in their own right, an attempt to try to close the gap and to celebrate Christmas in absentia.

Atwood, for instance, inscribed her 80 cards before her recent eye surgery, then added postscripts assuring friends the surgery went well. She even reopened some cards to add Thanksgiving photos.

“I’m thankful every day that I have so many friends,” she said as she left Orange County’s main processing center on Sunflower Avenue on what is billed as the busiest postal day of the year. The center typically cancels 1 million pieces of mail a night, but workers Monday braced for an onslaught of 2.5 million pieces in one day alone.

Nationally, postal officials estimated they would postmark 280 million cards Monday, almost three times the normal flow--including huge amounts in California, the state where the largest amount of mail originates.

The national total of Christmas mail is expected to be up 2.5% nationwide. A healthy economy can produce more Christmas mail, and since the United Parcel Service strike, many large shippers have turned to the Postal Service, said spokeswoman Terri Boffiou.

The result is akin to the traditional April 15 income-tax frenzy. Crowds ebbed and flowed Monday at local post offices. The Sunflower Avenue lobby was jammed at 8 a.m., surprisingly empty at 12:30 p.m., fast filling up again at 5:15 p.m. as the outdoor mailboxes were engulfed in a sea of red brake lights.

A parking shortage appeared to be the biggest problem. Nilda Velez had to try three times--at 11 a.m., 2 p.m. and again at 5--to find a spot in the Sunflower Avenue lot. Many package-bearers gave up, risking parking illegally at the curb.

Among them was Joann Browne of Anaheim, who apprehensively clutched her daughter’s Christmas package and a little slip reading “76.” The digital monitor on the wall showed that customer No. 60 was being served.

“I’ve got 16 to go, and I’m parked in the red,” said Browne, hoping against hope that yule-spirited police would not issue tickets.

Brenda Turcott of Costa Mesa, No. 74 in the post-office pecking order, had first visited this lobby at 7:35 a.m.

“It was a zoo, and I walked out,” said Turcott, who went to work and returned after 5 p.m. to a shorter line. The postal staff at the windows had grown from three to seven. “I give them credit,” she said.

The wait at some post offices was shorter than some had dreaded.

“This is the second time I’ve been here, and it’s been very fast,” said Melissa Reed as she left the Costa Mesa post office on Adams Avenue with her two sons, ages 1 and 2, in a stroller.

In the spirit of giving, some who chose not to wait took pity on other carton-toting customers, passing along their numbers to shorten their wait.

Times staff writers Hector Tobar and Valerie Burgher contributed to this report.

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Red-Letter Day

Monday marked the high point of the holiday mailing season as the Postal Service handled more than twice the average number of letters and packages usually canceled on a Monday. Pieces mailed in Orange County, in millions:

Dec. 1: 1.5

Dec. 8: 1.9

Dec. 15*: 2.5

Dec. 29**: 1.5

Normal Monday average: 1.0

* Estimated

** Projected

Procrastinator Alert

For those who put off mailing cards and packages until the last minute, these are the deadlines for a Christmas delivery:

* Dec. 20: Last day to send mail parcel post; costs range from $3 to $6 for packages up to 5 pounds

* Dec. 24: Express mail guarantees Christmas Day delivery; cost is up to $15 for a 2-pound package

Source: United States Postal Service