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Town Of Christmas, Michigan Postmarking Letters For Santa

CHRISTMAS, MICH (WWJ) -- One of Santa's helpers is camped out in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

Laurie Demers is the postmaster at the Christmas, Michigan post office, which is nearby Munising in far-north part of the Upper Peninsula. Each year, thousands of people send her their stamped Christmas cards so she can give them a Christmas, Michigan postmark.

"You have to box them to me so that they come directly to me before they get cancelled," Demers said. "Then I hand stamp them all with the Christmas stamp. Then we ship them out in special boxes so that they don't go through the cancelling machine again."

Demers said that they get cards from all over the U.S., which need to be in the Munising post office one week before Christmas to be mailed on time.

"Lots of our 'snowbird' people -- people who leave here for the winter and they go to Florida, sometimes they leave in early November or October and then they'll also sent their cards from like Florida and Arizona," Demers said.

Demers said the decorative cards make it all worthwhile.

"They'll have artwork and little drawings and like some North Pole things if they're doing a secret Santa -- they'll have North Pole as the return address with little candy canes and all sorts of little things," Demers said.

If you're looking to take part in the postmarking, you'll need to put postage on the cards before boxing them up. Demers said cards need to be in the Munising post office one week before Christmas to be mailed on time.

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