Next Year I Want My Christmas Card Postmarked from Crawford, Texas

[note: I normally don't post the same thing to both my journal and here, but I thought this was worth it.]

Apparently Bush thought it would be sweet to send the Christmas cards from Crawford, Texas (make like he and the misses spent their Thanksgiving break signing all 1 million cards at the Ranch). Well, it made one reported at the Austin American Statesman wonder, how on earth could that little post office in Crawford handle that kind of volume? And so she did some digging.

It turns out that the mail was actually processed in Austin. They simply "borrowed" the Crawford, Texas postmark stamp to do the job. But isn't that illegal?

The reported posed this question to the White House. Essentially their reply was "well, we did it, so it must be okay."

But wait, it gets better. More digging turned up the fact that the cards were probably never at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue nor in Crawford, Texas. Hallmark printed them, and sent them directly to a mass mailing company in Austin, who turned them over to the local post office.

I did a little checking and found out something interesting. This is from a press release date December 6, 2002 from the USPS:

Having your greeting cards postmarked from Bethlehem, Christmas, Nazareth, Rudolph or nearly 100 other holiday-themed communities tells your friends and loved ones that you literally went that extra mile to make this season's greeting special. You can get these postmarks without leaving town. Just follow these easy steps:

1. Place your stamped, addressed greeting cards in a large envelope or box. Label it "Holiday Greeting Card Re-Mailing."

2. Address to "Postmaster" of the town where you would like your cards postmarked.

3. Have the envelope or box weighed at your local post office to apply sufficient First-Class postage.

Most cards, if received by these post offices by December 15 will be delivered in time for the Holiday. The Postal Service recommends that customers refrain from sending empty envelopes. Once postmarked, the individual envelopes are entered into the mail stream for delivery.

Crawford, Texas, was not on the list (although there were six Texas cities listed: Star, Shepherd, Nazareth, Garland, Frost and Blessing). I propose we put it on the list. The zip code is 76638. Mark your 2003 calendar now!!