The United States Postal Service, like so many other companies and organizations, has released a few Christmas records throughout the years.  When I first saw them just a couple of years ago, I was hoping for a lot more than I could find.  I figured there would be one from every year starting in the early seventies, but I’ve only been able to track down a few.  Maybe that’s all there is.  But I continue to keep my eyes open.

All of the United States Postal Service Christmas CDs contain familiar Christmas songs by familiar artists.  Artists that were popular with different generations will be featured throughout a single CD.  In other words, they contain very common Christmas songs.

The first item on the list is not a Christmas music record.  It is titled “Try-To Re-Mem-Ber, These Dates In December – Christmas Mail Early Public Service Spots.”  There is only about 13 minutes of Public Service Announcements between both sides of the regular 12” LP.  This record was intended for radio stations to play Public Service Announcements from a few Hollywood stars about mailing Christmas packages early.  Side A is titled, “Use Before December 1, 1970,” and the B side is titled “Use After December 1, 1970.”  And a used copy wasn’t cheap either.  Especially for a record that contains no music but instead contains less than 13 minutes of spoken word Public Service Announcements.  But it was unique, and I had never heard of such a record, let alone having anything like it in my collection.  Regular readers of this blog know that I collect all forms of Christmas records.

But there is one record that escapes me.  It is titled “The Singing Mailmen Of Miami And Orchestra – Mail Early And Have A Merry Christmas.”  It combines Christmas songs sung by The Singing Mailmen of Miami, preceded by a Public Service Announcement.  The first side contains PSAs and music, and the second side contains just short PSAs about mailing packages early.  It looks to be released sometime between 1960 and 1963.  That’s when J. Edward Day was Postmaster General.  There is a message from him on the back of the LP jacket.  I can locate it on Discogs.com, but no one is offering it up for sale.  And I can’t find any trace of it on eBay.com.  But I have high hopes that someday, there will be a good copy of it in my collection.