Honolulu — The next two December Saturdays will be extended “Santa-days” at four Hawaii Post Offices. The Ala Moana, Kihei, Makiki and Waialae Post Offices will extend their retail closing times on Dec. 11 and 18 in order to accommodate the rush of customers hoping to send out their Christmas packages.

The suggested mailing dates for packages sent to the mainland are Dec. 17 for First-Class/Priority Mail and, for those who choose to procrastinate, Dec. 21 for Priority Express Mail.

The extended retail hours the next two Saturdays for the four Post Offices are shown below.

“We’re beginning to see a surge in customers shipping their Christmas packages,” said USPS Holiday Spokesperson Gaye Ibara. “We hope these extended retail hours will make it easier for our customers to ship out their packages to their friends and family across the nation.”

The holiday rush has also prompted the busiest Post Offices across the state to begin package delivery in the early hours of the morning, in order to maximize the Postal Service’s effort to deliver a happy holiday to its customers.

“The extended hours and early morning deliveries, along with the hiring of 40,000 seasonal employees nationwide, the installation of new equipment at select locations and the redesign of our transportation network, are special measures that we’ve taken in order to ensure that we’re providing peak customer service during our busiest time of the year.”

USPS expects to deliver more than 12 billion pieces of mail and about 950 million packages nationwide between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day.

The Postal Service generally 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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