WASHINGTON, DC — Last year’s favorite holiday photograph can be this year’s holiday postage.

Turn cherished memories into holiday cards and postage this year without leaving the house. The U.S. Postal Service has made it even easier to celebrate the holidays, streamlining the process to create cards and greetings online and highlighting the ease of customized postage.

“The focus is on convenience and a little creativity,” said Anita Bizzotto, USPS chief marketing officer and executive vice president. “Customize your holidays with your own personal take on cards, gifts and postage. All online and all at a time that is convenient for you. Today’s holidays needs today’s mail.”

CardStore (usps.com/cardstore) allows customers to create greeting cards and add a gift card from one of 20 national retail outlets. Use personal photos or choose from more than 50 card designs, including traditional, religious, multi-cultural and non-denominational images and greetings.

Other online options for holiday greetings include Click2Mail and Premium Postcards. Click2Mail provides the perfect solution for end-of-year holiday letters and can be sent by First-Class Mail or Standard Mail rates. Premium Postcards can be created in black and white or full color to announce new holiday products or discounts, send a personal greeting or thank customers for their support throughout the year.

And if grandma loved last year’s family photo, she’ll love it even more when it adorns the outside of an envelope. Customized postage lets customers personalize postage with pictures or images using Customized PC Postage technology. A favorite family memory, a formal wedding portrait, an attempt at baking holiday cookies, even Santa sneaking down the chimney can help make a card or letter that much more personal. (usps.com/postagesolutions)

Customized postage has two parts: a customer-supplied image and a state-of-the-art, secure barcode. All customized postage is compatible with the Postal Services’ automated mail processing systems. It can be used on First-Class Mail, Priority Mail and Express Mail for personal and commercial use.

For the more traditional at heart, Holiday Knits, Madonna of the Carnation, Hanukkah, Kwanza and EID stamps also are available and can ordered online at usps.com/postalstore or in Post Offices across the country.

Demonstrations on creating customized cards and postage are being held in Post Offices across the country through Dec. 6.

Fact sheets on CardStore, Click2Mail and Premium Postcards, as well as samples of CardStore and customized postage images are available in the Holiday Press Room at usps.com.

Visit the Holiday Press Room at usps.com.

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Please Note: For broadcast quality video and audio, photo stills and other media resources, visit the USPS Newsroom at http://about.usps.com/news/welcome.htm.

For reporters interested in speaking with a regional Postal Service public relations professional on this issue, please go to http://about.usps.com/news/media-contacts/usps-local-media-contacts.pdf.

A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 151 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. With 32,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, usps.com, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $65 billion and delivers nearly 40 percent of the world’s mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 35th in the 2011 Fortune 500. Black Enterprise and Hispanic Business magazines ranked the Postal Service as a leader in workforce diversity. The Postal Service has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency for six years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.

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