An 88-year-old Christmas card stamping tradition in Noel looks a little different this year, due to the covid-19 pandemic.
For year after year, pairs of volunteers have sat in the post office lobby stamping the thousands of Christmas cards that come in from McDonald County, around the country and around the world to get the special "Noel" postmarks. This year, however, the officer in charge, Lynn Howerton, said it is too difficult to socially distance volunteers that way, so things will be done a little differently. People who bring in their own Christmas cards will be given the option to stamp them, along with some extras, and Howerton and the clerk will be stamping some as well.
"It's that kind of a year we have to find a way to do things," Howerton said. "We didn't want to not do it. It's tradition. Who doesn't like traditions?"
She said just over 2,000 Christmas cards had arrived at the post office by Monday, having trickled in for the past month. She added the post office had been getting a lot of calls from people who live out of state, so she anticipated more would be coming.
"I'm hoping we will get more (cards) since people can't get together," she said.
Tonya Garvin, the public administrator for McDonald County, was among those who volunteered to stamp cards this year, only she did not get the message that there would be no volunteers. She showed up for her time slot on Monday and was allowed to stamp cards by herself in the lobby.
She explained her job as public administrator involves acting as a guardian for disabled clients, and she sends each of them a Christmas card each year. Last year she brought her cards to Noel to have them stamped, as all of her clients are from McDonald County and she thought they would enjoy the nostalgia. At that time she was asked to volunteer for this year.
Garvin said she enjoyed stamping the cards, just letting her mind wander and problem solve.
"It's good therapy, and it's pretty," she said.
Garvin grew up in Noel, moving there as a child in 1995 and then moving to Anderson after she graduated from high school in 2002, she said.
Christmas card stamping starts on the day after Thanksgiving and goes until Christmas Eve each year.
The tradition, nearing its 90th year, was started in 1932 by Postmaster Edward T. Rousselot, who was French. He proposed a special Christmas cancellation from the only town in the U.S. named after the French word for "Christmas," Noel.
Noel's special tradition became widely known when popular radio and television singer Kate Smith learned of it in the 1940s and began sharing about it every year on her broadcast at Christmastime.