By Hub City Times staff

RUDOLPH – A special Rudolph cancellation postmark will be available on Dec. 8, during Rudolph Country Christmas.

The tradition of the decorative stamp began with Rudolph Postmaster Lillian Blonien, who served as postmaster there 1940-1971. A Girl Scout project began the custom of cancelling holiday cards with stamps featuring Santa’s lead reindeer.

Every spring, a contest is held with young students entering their unique designs for the stamp. From these submissions, one design is chosen for the special postmark.

The postmark stamp is then used the second Saturday of December to hand-stamp each letter, which is estimated to adorn 10,000 pieces of mail that day.

The Rudolph post office also offers a standard stamp inside the post office for anyone to use to stamp holiday packages that shows Rudolph with the saying “Rudolph, Wisconsin— Home of Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”

Rudolph Country Christmas will be held Dec. 8, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m., in the village of Rudolph. The event will feature Breakfast with Santa, a petting zoo, crafts, kids games, a 5K run, a Christmas Parade, and much more. For more information, visit www.rudolphcountrychristmas.org.