WASHINGTON — All Post Offices nationwide will be open Christmas Eve, Saturday, Dec. 24, and New Year’s Eve, Saturday, Dec. 31. Most will have shortened retail lobby hours and will close at noon. Mail delivery for Dec. 24 and Dec. 31 will be the same as any other Saturday.

Each Post Office will post its revised hours of operation for these two days. Commercial customers should check with their Business Mail Entry Units for Dec. 24 and Dec. 31 hours of operation.

Customers are encouraged to go online to usps.com or to call 800-ASK-USPS for information about specific Post Offices. In addition, mail should be deposited in blue collection mailboxes before noon for early pickup on Dec. 24 and Dec. 31. Customers requiring postal services later that day are encouraged to contact their local Postmaster.

In observance of the holidays, Post Offices will be closed Monday, Dec. 26, and Monday Jan. 2. Only Express Mail will be delivered on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day in most major metro areas. Post Offices will resume regular business hours on Tuesday, Dec. 27 and Tuesday, Jan. 3.

The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.

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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, 150 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 29th in the 2010 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 six consecutive years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.