Over the past few days, Ive been noticing a lot of mail and USPS paraphernalia showing up in hip places.  Maybe 2009 is going to be the year of the letter?  I can’t tell yet, but here are some exciting, mail-related tidbits:

• The newest Christmas special from the Muppets is called Letters to Santa and “opens with a big song and dance number at the post office – featuring the Muppets and an ensemble of postal workers. It is Christmas eve and the Muppets are waiting in line to mail their Christmas cards. But with all the mayhem, the Muppets mistakenly avert three letters from making their way to Santa Claus at the North Pole, and put three Christmas wishes at stake.”
• Kate Spade has an envelope themed purse available (found via Letter Writers Alliance)
  
• The USPS had a float in the Macy’s Parade
• Stamps are getting hip again (via NotCot) but sadly, not in the US (via CR Blog)
• Cabinet Magazine published a Book of Stamps
• The Paper Source is embracing the envelope as an icon
• An online Box Doodle project again, though, based in Geramny

I wonder if, as a result of all these economic hard times, people are starting to remember how nice it is to have something physical to hold onto when your loved one can’t actually be there.  Maybe I’m getting overly excited, but I do feel like the mail is almost about to be maybe kind of retro-hip.

There are more examples than the ones above, but at the moment I can’t find the link to the art project I saw that used film stills from movies where people were reading letters, and there was a store window I passed that used the “air mail” theme nicely.  I suppose this is why I should carry a camera with me at all times.