February 4th is Thank Your Mailperson Day! What can you do to thank the person who delivers your mail?

Please be aware that postal carriers must follow particular gift rules! Please read this article for a nice overview.

The basic idea is:

• Don’t give your postal carrier cash!
• Whatever you give them, if it’s a gift card or something similar, keep at $20 or under.

Now go forth and love the heck out of these folks who slog through the weather on a daily basis to get us our mail. Post some ideas here if you’ve got some good ones. Or tell us what you did for this day. I haven’t decided yet, but I’m getting away from the computer right this second to go figure it out! (I have two postal carriers, one at home, one at my office! I know the one at my office has a weakness for chocolate covered cherries.)

This is how geeky I am. I nearly hopped out of my seat squealing “woo woo woo!” when they had a segment on Good Morning America about gifts you can give people for Christmas if you’re having hard economic times. One of the ideas was writing a letter.

Mellody Hobson mentioned in the segment that she got the idea from Oprah who said that one of the greatest gifts one person can give another is a letter. She also mentioned that once when asked what Oprah would be getting Denzel Washington for Christmas, she said she would be writing him a letter!

So, it’s never been an easier time to simulate the lifestyles of the rich and famous. Forget high fashion, forget upscale homes and cars. Just write a letter!

(Just FYI, the summary of the segment that I have linked to is not nearly as good as the video. She elaborated much more on the letter writing. I’m sorry I couldn’t find a video version of it.)

Our dryer stopped working mysteriously last night. My husband took it apart today and did all sorts of diagnostic magic with it and it appeared to him that everything was working correctly. And yet the dryer would still not dry.

Finally, he called a repairman who, as a kindness to us, left another job and drove 20 minutes to our house only to find that our son had flipped a switch we didn’t even know existed and turned the heat off for the dryer! The repairman was very good-natured and chuckled about the whole situation and was even good enough to help my husband put the dryer back together. And at the end, he didn’t even charge us for his visit.

We were moved by his kindness and went out to purchase a gift certificate for him for a local restaurant that we enjoy. Then on to the note… what is a good way to thank someone for their time? You can approach it like any other gift. The only commodity people in the service industry have is their time, so it’s the equivalent of someone from a store giving away merchandise or the manager of a restaurant giving away free food.

This is how we did our note. Feel free to borrow the wording as needed!

Dan,

Thank you for coming by so promptly today to fix our dryer problem. I appreciate the generous gift of your time. Enclosed is a gift certificate to XYZ Cafe. I hope you’ll enjoy a meal on us!

Stanley Politeguy

Len from Celebrating Life’s Memories has created a great tutorial for a sweet letter box that she uses in her family to continue a tradition of swapping letters between family members. She’s got pictures and instructions that make it easy. Go check it out, crafty people!

Letter Box by Len

I love handmade stuff, so I love to support artists and craftsman trying to make a living creating beautiful things.

Thus, here is list of 5 sweet gifts under $10 for people who love letters and letter writing. It’s a cheap and easy way to give gifts on a budget!

Letterpress Giraffe Cards

Write a Letter Button

Woodland Envelopes

Vintage Atlas Map Envelopes

Handmade Address Book