Creative Activities for Neither Rain Nor Snow Day

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Most people believe that this phrase is the official motto of the United States Postal Service: “Neither rain nor snow nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” 

Is that correct? Well, not exactly. The phrase became popular after it was inscribed on the new main post office building in New York City that opened on September 7, 1914.

As a result, September 7 has become a day to celebrate the postal service. Despite occasional complaints of lost mail or the rising cost of postage stamps, it’s pretty amazing to think that the USPS delivers an average of 484.8 million pieces of mail each day.

I hope you’ll share Neither Rain Nor Snow Day with your residents. Since we’ll all experienced the postal service throughout our entire lives, your residents will surely have lots of memories and stories to share. Here are several activities to get you started.

Host a guest speaker

Invite someone from the community to come in and talk with your residents. This person could be:

• A mail carrier telling funny and interesting stories about their work
• A librarian talking about the history of the postal service
• A consumer advocate educating residents about mail fraud scams
• A stamp collector talking about the evolution of stamps over the years

Share songs

You can’t celebrate a holiday without enjoying some music. Here are just a few of the many songs that talk about sending letters in the mail:

Return To Sender  (Elvis)

The Letter  (The Box Tops)

I’m Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter  (Frank Sinatra)

Please Mr. Postman  (The Carpenters)

Mailman, Bring Me No More Blues  (Buddy Holly)

P.S. I Love You  (The Beatles)

Signed, Sealed, Delivered  (Stevie Wonder)

A Letter From Camp  (Allan Sherman)

Dear Abby  (John Prine)

Write notes

Provide supplies so your residents can create encouraging cards to mail to other people. These are a few possibilities:

Operation Gratitude

Cards For Hospitalized Kids

Cards Of Hope (for kids in foster care)

Request postcards

During September, go onto social media and ask people to send your residents postcards with pictures from their state or country. It’s so much fun to see the cards as they arrive each day.

This opens the door to lots of other activities, too:

• Find out which of your residents visited or lived in each place.
• Share trivia about the state or country.
• Ask residents to share stories of unique postcards they’ve sent or received.
• When the project is finished, invite your residents to make beautiful collages from the postcard pictures.

Surprise your mail carrier

Create a super-sized thank-you card for your mail carrier. Have residents waiting to deliver it when your carrier arrives on September 7. You could also attach a little treat if you wish.

Learn about the postal service

I pulled together a few interesting articles that I know you’ll enjoy sharing with your residents:

Did people really mail children?

A mailman’s story

Fun facts about the USPS

Are you looking for other fun and unusual holidays to celebrate? Then you’ll want to check out this archived list.