BETHLEHEM, N.H. (AP) — A tiny post office in Bethlehem, New Hampshire is being overrun this holiday season by people who want to postmark their Christmas cards with the town’s name.
Most of the year, letters dropped off at the post office are sent to a regional facility in White River Junction, Vermont, where an automated machine cancels the stamps. But every December, Bethlehem postmaster Brian Thompson dusts off a machine that has been there for at least 60 years. Stacks of cards must be fed into it by hand and it cancels each stamp with the word “Bethlehem.”
About 58,000 letters have gone through the machine this holiday season.
There are about 90 U.S. towns with Christmas – or holiday -themed names, including six other Bethlehems.
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