Many people follow traditions this time of year.  In churches there are Advent Wreaths, with candles that are lit at the beginning of each worship service, signifying various aspects of the season.  People decorate their homes with lights and greenery.  Some place huge inflatable cartoon characters in their yards alongside animated reindeer or polar bears.

Others travel in order to mail their Christmas cards with a Bethlehem postmark.  That’s Bethlehem, Maryland.

There is no mail delivery in this town of 150 residents, but upwards of 50,000 Christmas cards pass through the post office each year as visitors make the pilgrimage to get the coveted Bethlehem postmark.  They even have rubber stamps of the Three Wise Men for customers to print onto their envelopes.  One person, just to be sure her efforts are not overlooked, attaches stickers to the envelopes that point out, “I mailed this from Bethlehem.”

There are five other towns named Bethlehem in the U. S., and other towns with distinctive postmarks include Nazareth, Texas, and Wiseman, Arkansas.  One assumes their mail traffic spikes during the holidays, as well.

The Maryland Bethlehem rose to prominence following the initiative in 1938 of a teenager named Marjorie Ann Chambers.  She wanted her town to be noted during the holidays, as was Santa Claus, Idaho and others.  It so happened Marjorie’s father was the publisher of the local newspaper, and her concern found space among its pages.  The rest, as often is reported, is history.

And the tradition continues each year.