The Magical Holidays Brought to You by the Postal Service and ABC Family

The Magical Holidays Brought to You by the Postal Service and ABC Family

WASHINGTON, Nov. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- It's that magical time of year. The United States Postal Service, ABC Family, 7-Eleven, Mann Made Productions and City Explorer TV have partnered this holiday season as Santa's helpers to grant the special holiday wishes for children in need.

ABC Family will premiere a one-hour holiday special titled, "Dear Santa" on Tuesday, Nov. 28, at 7 pm ET/PT. This network TV special was created to help make children's dreams come true -- dreams that were written in letters to Santa Claus from children all across the country.

"Santa has counted on the power of the mail for more than two centuries to deliver the special holiday wishes of children," said Postmaster General John E. Potter. "Connecting families, friends and loved ones through the mail during the holiday season is what we do. Postal employees across the nation join charitable organizations, corporations and individuals as Santa's helpers in making children's holiday wishes come true by answering the letters to Santa that we receive," Potter said. "We are pleased to be a part of this production and hope it encourages others to visit their local post offices to do the same."

In 1912, Postmaster General Frank Hitchcock authorized local postmasters to allow individuals and institutions to use letters addressed to Santa Claus for philanthropic purposes. In that tradition, the Postal Service provided Mann Made Productions and City Explorer TV with letters to Santa from around the country and they chose the letters featured on the show.

The Postal Service will be promoting the special with in-store posters in most of its 37,000 post offices.

This year's "Dear Santa" special will also take a look at two of last year's children who were granted extraordinary holiday wishes and see how they are doing. These special families will help pass along the giving spirit to others in need.

Distributed in over 90 million homes, the special features Santa granting the wishes of children with a little help from celebrity "elves" Matt Dallas ("Kyle XY"), Sarah Chalke ('Scrubs"), pro skateboarder Tony Hawk, hit recording artist Brian McKnight, actress Raven-Symone ("That's So Raven"), Wilmer Valderrama ("That 70's Show") and host Kristen Bell ("Veronica Mars").

For additional details on the Postal Service's holiday campaign and the "Dear Santa" television special, visit this link: http://www.usps.com/holiday.

Source: U.S. Postal Service

CONTACT: Roy Betts of U.S. Postal Service, +1-202-268-3207, Cell:
+1-202-256-4174, roy.a.betts@usps.gov

Web site: http://www.usps.com/

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