Christmas Island Gears Up For the Holidays

The Canada News Wire reports, "Christmas Island Postmistress Hughena MacKinnon is busy gearing up her tiny post office for the anticipated influx of holiday mail set to arrive from all over the world—all in search of a very special postmark."

MacKinnon says she stamps personally on about 1,000 letters a day—2,000 on busiest days—during the peak holiday timeframe.

According to the article," For over 16 years now at this time of year, the Christmas Island post office gets almost as busy as Santa's workshop. The amount of mail received at the office jumps almost 1,000% during the holidays. The thousands of letters come from around the world from collectors and holiday enthusiasts anxious to get the official postmark from Christmas Island."

The Territory of Christmas Island is a territory of Australia in the Indian Ocean. According to an entry on Wikipedia, Captain William Mynors of the Royal Mary, a British East India Company vessel, named the island when he sailed past it on Christmas Day in 1643.

To read the entire article on the Digital Journal website, click here.