City sets up Santa mailboxes
By Ken Powers Contributing Writer

Mayor Nancy Stevens and Postmaster Nicholas Tselkis unveil one of the city's three Santa mailboxes. KEN POWERS

Marlborough - A sure sign that Christmas is just around the corner is the appearance of the three bright red mailboxes in the city at this time each year, ready to bring area children's wish lists directly to the North Pole and to the top of Santa's to-do list.

Those mailboxes were unveiled Nov. 13 by Marlborough Mayor Nancy Stevens and Postmaster Nicholas Tselkis in a brief ceremony just outside the main post office at 20 Florence St., where one of the mailboxes is located. Another mailbox is in front of City Hall and the third is on Main Street at Prospect.

Children can deposit letters to Santa into the red mailboxes themselves, put them in any other mailbox or hand them to any postal carrier and they will end up in the Santa mailboxes.

"These mailboxes are our guarantee to the children of Marlborough that your mail carrier will pick up your letter to Santa, drop it in one of these mailboxes and it will go directly to the North Pole and Santa himself," Tselkis said.

Stevens also took time at the unveiling of the mailboxes to announce that Marlborough's annual holiday kickoff , "Home for the Holidays" will be held Friday Nov. 30 at Union Common at the intersection of routes 20 and 85, beginning at 6 p.m.

At that time the mayor, with the musical help of the Marlborough High School Mixed Chorus, will light the Christmas tree, officially beginning the holiday season in the city.

Helping to commemorate the event will be performances by the Marlborough High School String Ensemble (at 6:45 p.m.) and the Marlborough High School Jazz Band (at 7:30 p.m.). Both performances will be held at the First Congregational Church, 37 High St.

The two-hour event will also include Santa Claus himself at Union Common, as well as hot chocolate, candy canes, popcorn, balloons and barn animals from a nearby farm.

The Home for the Holidays kickoff , which began, although in a diff erent form, in 1993, is traditionally held on the first Friday of December, but with the first Friday of December being as late as possible this year - Dec. 7 - Stevens decided to move the festivities up a week.

"It's a great time and a great way to kick off the holidays here in the city," Stevens said. "It's just a wonderful celebration."

Last year was Stevens's first getting to actually light the tree. She said she's looking forward to doing that again this year.

"I'm always surprised at how many people and families come and participate," Stevens said. "It's usually around 400 or 500 people. Sometimes it's a little bitter out there, but we always get a fantastic turnout."

Tselkis used the unveiling of the Santa mailboxes to announce that the post office's five holiday celebration series stamps are now on sale.

Those stamps are Madonna of the Carnation, Holiday Knit, Eid - the Muslim holiday, as well as stamps commemorating Kwanza and Hanukkah.

"We try to cover all the avenues for our community base here in Marlborough," Tselkis said. "We have a diverse community and we want to make sure we take care of them all."