Friday, December 13, 2024
These holiday films are gifts that keep on giving
Watch these festive flicks to pick up some mail-related tips
Holiday movies aren’t just for getting into the spirit of the season — they also offer useful mailing and shipping reminders. Here are five examples:
• Christmas cards can spark or rekindle relationships. In the 2021 Hallmark Channel movie “Open by Christmas,” a woman (Alison Sweeney) visits her parents’ home and finds an unopened holiday card with a love note from a high school secret admirer — whom she’s determined to identify. In “Write Before Christmas,” a 2019 Hallmark Channel movie, a recently single woman (Torrey DeVitto) sends Christmas cards to five people who have influenced her life, then develops a romance with the son (Chad Michael Murray) of one recipient.
• A letter written from the heart is always a perfect gift. In a new Hallmark Channel movie, “Confessions of a Christmas Letter,” a family matriarch (Angela Kinsey) enters her town’s annual holiday letter-writing contest. In a 2022 film for the cable network, “Hanukkah on Rye,” a matchmaker connects two deli owners (Yael Grobglas, Jeremy Jordan) who are instructed to communicate only through letters during the Festival of Lights.
• When it comes to holiday party invitations, nothing beats paper. In “Holiday Crashers,” another 2024 Hallmark Channel film, two card shop employees (Lyndsy Fonseca, Daniella Monet) decide to shake up their humdrum lives by crashing holiday parties from the shop’s orders of printed invitations.
• Letters to Santa Claus are a big deal. In the 2024 Great American Family movie “A Vintage Christmas,” an historian (Merritt Patterson) working to preserve an old, closed Post Office discovers a cache of letters to St. Nick. In “48 Christmas Wishes,” a 2017 Netflix flick, two junior elves lose an entire town’s letters to Santa and must retrieve them before Christmas Eve.
• Be mindful of shipping deadlines to ensure holiday delivery. In the 2022 Hallmark Channel movie “A Heidelberg Holiday,” an artisan (Ginna Claire Mason) selling handmade glass ornaments must pull out all the stops to ensure the items reach customers abroad before Christmas.
Want to change your health benefits? Act now
This year’s open season will close Dec. 13
Postal Service employes who want to change their health coverage or enroll in a new plan must act now.
Open season, the annual period when USPS employees can make benefits changes, ends Friday, Dec. 13, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern.
This is the deadline to enroll in or make changes to the Postal Service Health Benefits Program, flexible spending accounts, the Annual Leave Exchange Program and the USPS Health Benefits Plan (available to eligible noncareer employees).
After the deadline passes, most Postal Service employees will have until next November to consider new benefits options.
The MyHR website’s open season page has information and resources, including a link to a health plan comparison tool from Checkbook’s Guide to Health Plans for Federal Employees.
People
Not just a Blippi
Employees star in a children’s video and a postmaster creates her own holiday cards
A group of Postal Service employees appear in the new holiday video with Blippi, a popular children’s character with his own YouTube channel, and Mr. ZIP.
The employees filmed the 18-minute video in Santa Clarita, CA, in August, alongside Clayton Grimm, who performs as Blippi.
“The experience was amazing,” said Lebec, CA, Postmaster Jamie Wright, one of the employees. “The co-workers I got to work with and get to know better was a highlight for me for sure.”
In the video, Blippi visits the Santa Clarita Post Office to mail a letter and ends up receiving an education on all things postal from Wright and her co-workers.
The group includes Anyssa Hinojos, a retail associate, and three employees from the nearby Santa Clarita Processing and Distribution Center: Ernie Martinez, a mail handler equipment operator; Andrew Villanueva, a mail processing clerk; and Christopher Nance, a maintenance operations manager.
The video, which debuted on YouTube last month, was mostly unscripted.
“They gave us an idea what to say and then we all just went our own way using our imaginations,” Wright said.
The mom of six said she appreciates the educational aspect of the Blippi video — as well as the opportunity to perform herself.
Wright also appeared in a USPS TV commercial in 2015 and has performed the national anthem at a few stamp dedication ceremonies.
“I’m not afraid of the limelight,” she said.
Mailing smiles
Yes, people in this fast-paced digital world still mail holiday cards.
Just ask Glenwood, MD, Postmaster Paula Logue, who spends much of her free time creating her own cards and mailing them to family and friends. On average, she makes 185 cards each year.
“People love opening a card they retrieved from the mailbox,” Logue said. “Who’s it from? What’s it going to say? What’s it going to look like?”
According to USPS research, holiday cards made up 46 percent of the mail that households received during the 2023 holiday season.
“All I want to do is make people smile when they open their card,” Logue said. “If I have done that, then my job is done.”
“People” appears regularly in Link. Got news to share? Email us.
News Quiz
No Canada
Do you know how the labor shutdown is affecting USPS?
“News Quiz” is a weekly feature that lets you test your knowledge of recent Link stories. The correct answers appear at the end.
1. True or false: Even though employees of Canada Post are on strike, U.S. customers can still mail items to Canada at their local Post Offices.
a) True
b) False
2. True or false: Despite the devastation caused by hurricanes Helene and Milton, the Postal Service still delivered mail-in ballots in the Southeast from voters to election officials within one day.
a) True
b) False
3. Under the Delivering for America plan, how much money will the Postal Service invest in new technologies and facilities?
a) $18 billion
b) $36 billion
c) $40 billion
d) $50 billion
4. On regularly occurring occasions, such as holidays and birthdays, a USPS employee may give a noncash gift to a manager or a higher-paid employee if the gift is worth how much money?
a) $5 or less
b) $10 or less
c) $15 or less
d) $20 or less
5. Lt. Col. Charity Adams led the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion of the Women’s Army Corps during World War II. What was named in her honor in 2023?
a) Army fort
b) Federal highway
c) Post Office
d) VFW post
Answers: 1) b. USPS has suspended acceptance of mail and packages bound for Canada as a result of the ongoing strike. 2) a. 3) c. 4) b. 5) a.
PMG remarks to House, Senate committees available
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy testified before the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability on Dec. 10.
The title of the hearing was “Oversight of the U.S. Postal Service.”
The Postmaster General’s opening statement and full testimony are on the USPS Newsroom website.
DeJoy’s full testimony from the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Dec. 5 is also available on the USPS Newsroom.
Postal Bulletin reminds us that winter is coming
Postal Bulletin’s latest edition, published Dec. 12, offers tips on dealing with ice, snow and cold weather.
Updates to the organization’s policies, procedures and forms are also included.
Employees can go to usps.com to read and download the latest Postal Bulletin, along with past issues.
View past printouts
Printout details
What's included
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These holiday films are gifts that keep on giving
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Want to change your health benefits? Act now
This year’s open season will close Dec. 13
-
People
Not just a Blippi
Employees star in a children’s video and a postmaster creates her own holiday cards
-
News Quiz
No Canada
Do you know how the labor shutdown is affecting USPS?
-
Brief
PMG remarks to House, Senate committees available
-
Brief
Postal Bulletin reminds us that winter is coming