@helent @borealis @candyflosscurls - woah! That’s good to know. I’ll be honest in saying I don’t think I’d be as active of a postcrosser if I couldn’t just drop them off in my mailbox, but I doubt I could resist participating in the end. You guys are real troopers!
@HookedonPostcards I’ve gotten accepted into a few Canadian universities recently, so it looks like I’ll be joining you all in battling the snow if all goes to plan. The things we do for postcrossing, haha! 
Welcome to Canada! 
In the USA, you can also design and apply to have a special cancelation postmark - usually for special occasions. We have an annual meet-up here and the guy who organizes it has a special cancellation designed just for our meeting. Other post offices around the country also do special cancellations, like Loveland Colorado recently did one for Valentines day, etc.
Sadly, no. I recently learned that myself when I moved to Canada from the US. Also, we only get delivery M-F here, no Saturday service. The USPS is truly a gem.
No Saturday delivery I can live with. Having to remember if this week is Mon-Wed-Fri or Tue-Thur, now that’s annoying.
The plot thickens! Well, at least that’ll force me to spend my Saturday’s attending to other things rather than excitedly waiting for the mailman for half the weekend
This isn’t related exactly to the services that the Finnish post offers, but a reality-tv show about Finnish postal workers starts airing on November 3. The 10-episode-series focuses on the everyday work of postal workers who are responsible for delivery, sorting and transport. The featured postal centres are Pirkanmaa, Jyväskylä, Sodankylä and Santa Claus’ main post office. I wonder if postcrossing is featured/mentioned in the series? 
Posti ylpeänä esittää: Me postilaiset -sarja kertoo postilaisista ja heidän työarjestaan asiakkaidemme palvelemiseksi - Posti (unfortunately only in Finnish)
Canada Post has a letter to Santa program. Children can write to Santa ( postal code HoHoHo 
) and they will receive a letter back.
Apart from the usual postal services, India Post offers services like banking, life insurance, money order and bill collection. The Postal Department also acts as an agent for the Indian government in discharging other services for citizens, especially in rural areas, including pension and wage disbursement.
Here is an interesting read:
The U.S. Postal Service placed a very irregular shaped postcard from Hong Kong inside an envelope and then delivered it to me. I thought all mail had to be rectangular in shape.
We can send oddly shaped cards as well but it costs extra for the non-machinable surcharge
I think they still do this in Canada too. I remember you just had to put it in your mailbox and put the flag up. Of course, I live in a town now and there is no need as there is a drop box on almost every block it seems.
ETA:
Actually, you still can do this in Canada.
“• A signal device is used by Canada Post delivery agents to indicate
that mail has been deposited in a mailbox for pickup or for customers
to indicate that there is outgoing mail to be picked up (proper
postage must be affixed to all outgoing mail).”
You can buy money orders and collectable coins through Canada Post.
You used to be able to pay bills through Canada Post, but they’re phasing it out. I don’t know if it was very popular?
Since I joined Postcrossing, I’ve been very jealous that the US (and presumably other places?) have Saturday delivery!
One interesting thing that the U.S.P.S. offered to all of its 750,000 employees, in 2002, were potassium iodide tablets, which would have protected them from thyroid cancer in case of a nuclear accident or attack. I guess the government figured that even in the event of a nuclear armageddon, the American people could at least still look forward to receiving their daily mail.
In Norway the mail is delivered every second day (3 days one week and 2 days the following week). They will not collect any outgoing mail those days unless this is ordered (and paid for) in advance.
I don’t know if this is all across the USA or not, but where I live they hold a food drive once a year, where you can leave non-perishable food items in a bag hung from your mailbox, and the letter carriers collect it for local food pantries.
At the moment the postal services is offering free shipment of “gift package” to Ukrain (like hygenic articles, dry food etc) and it will be delived and in Ukrain will be distributed by the Ukrain mail.
Yes, it’s a national program.
