Ho Ho Ho

It is the time of the year again to join more than 10,000 Santa lookalikes to run 5K or walk 1 mile in the annual Great Santa Run in Las Vegas, Nevada, and get a special postmark on your mail from Santa Claus Station, Santa Claus, Indiana.

In its 10th anniversary at downtown Las Vegas, the Great Santa Run, is a fundraiser event for Opportunity Village, a nonprofit organization founded 60 years ago in 1954 that serves almost 3,000 people with intellectual disabilities with vocational training, employment opportunities, enrichment services and other supports. (Update: the number of runners in 2014 was tallied as 8725)

The Great Santa Run in Las Vegas, 2014

In Santa Claus, Indiana, the famous small-town post office Santa Claus Station, the only one in the world bearing the Santa Claus name, is offering a special pictorial postmark on holiday mail again this year, continuing a tradition since 1983. Every year, the holiday postmark is designed by a local high school art student during an annual contest. Shyann Smith, a 2014 senior at Heritage Hills High School from Fulda, Indiana won the 2014 competition. The postmark is available from December 1 to December 24.

Postmaster Marian Balbach asks anyone who requests the special cancellation to follow the guidelines:

• Allow at least a 2-inch by 4-inch space in the stamp area for the picture postmark;
• Apply postage to cards or letters before bringing or mailing them to the post office;
• If you wish to mail Christmas cards to the post office, package them—with postage stamps already on them—in a sturdy envelope or box, and mail to: Postmaster, Santa Claus Station, Santa Claus, IN 47579-9998;
• The picture postmark is available on working days between December 1 and 24;
• The picture postmark must be requested by the postal customer;
• To ensure a good postmark imprint, do not enclose large or bulky items in your holiday mail (Ex: reindeer food, snowflakes, glitter, stickers, etc.);
• There is no charge for postmarking; however, there is a limit of 50 picture postmarks (hand cancellations) per person per day.

Postcard US-2452330 to Taiwan was sent in to the Santa Claus Station for its 2013 edition of the special cancellation, replacing a prior Flying Jenny card presumably lost in the mail.

Flying Jenny

Recently I got back this "Flying Jenny" postcard from the USPS Stamp Fulfillment Services in Kansas City, MO after getting a First-Day-of-Issue postmark on the re-issued "Inverted Jenny" rare stamp. The image used on the postcard was a cropped version of a family photo in public domain by George Johnson, Aviation Section, US Army Signal Corps. taken in 1918. It shows a Curtiss JN-4 (Jenny) on a training flight during World War I.

Other cards, sent in for the First-Day-of-Issue cancellation with similar designs, were addressed to Romania (US-2474578) and Taiwan (US-2452330). They are now expired, with postcard US-2452330 being replaced by a re-sent Christmas card. However, since it took a little more than a month to get the First-Day-of-Issue cancellations, the actually traveling time for those cards should be less than stated. The original cards may still arrive soon.