While Christmas is coming and the geese are getting fat, so are the volumes of mail -- Christmas cards, packages and letters to Santa Claus -- being taken in at local post offices.

The closer the calendar moves to Dec. 25, Sharon Postmaster Dave Hochadel said, the larger the number of parcels.

The Greenville post office has extended its Saturday hours through Dec. 21 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. with weekdays hours the same. Hochadel said the Hermitage post office extended its Saturday hours from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in order to deal with holiday overload.

Though people aren't mailing as many holiday cards as they used to, today and Dec. 23 will be the biggest delivery days for local post offices.

Pre-Christmas Mondays are always busy because people go shopping over the weekend and have their packages wrapped and ready for shipping, said a Mercer postal clerk. Plenty of holiday cards will also get mailed over the weekends, Hochadel said.

"Between the next two Mondays it'll be a toss up on the volume of mail we'll be handling," he said Friday.

Mail volume also picked up this week at the Greenville post office and Supervisor Bob Kuykendall expects it'll get busier as time ticks closer to Christmas.

"For deliveries, Wednesday is going to be our busiest day because it's a week before Christmas," he said.

In Greenville, priority and express mail will get delivered on Christmas day.

"People expect to get their presents even if it's last minute and believe me there's a lot of last-minute senders," Kuykendall said. "But we're trying to get as many parcels delivered as we can before Christmas."

Post offices usually don't empty collection boxes on Sundays, but extra collections were made Sunday and will be made Dec. 22 in Sharon for the holidays.

"We're doing city-wide collections because of what we anticipate," Hochadel said. "The mailers are back and confident that we can deliver."

Last year, following Sept. 11, local post offices suffered a serious decline in mail volume, he said. There were other disruptions as well, including the mail box bombings and anthrax scares.

"There was also a period last year after Sept. 11 that we didn't fly on commercial airliners, which is how we transport a large amount of our mail," Hochadel said, adding it was several months before post offices resumed flying.

"It's hard to compare (this year's holiday mail) to last year because of that. We've had a steady decline in Christmas mail over the past 10 years. It used to just be crazy for us, but it's not as crazy as it used to be."

In addition to Christmas cards, post offices are also receiving letters for Santa. Hochadel said Sharon's post offices take in about four letters a day addressed to good ol' Saint Nick.

"We're averaging a few each day here at (Sharon's) main office and probably more in Hermitage," Hochadel said.

Ray Cready, Farrell postmaster, said Farrell's post office has a mailbox in the lobby area specifically for letters to Santa. In order for Santa to receive his mail, letters should be addressed to: Santa Claus, North Pole. Letters should also include a return address for Santa's reply.

You can e-mail Herald Staff Writer Larissa Theodore at ltheodore@sharonherald.com