LOOKS A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS; HOLIDAY WISHES JAM POST OFFICES IN SANTA CLARITA.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

The good news was that five clerks manned the windows Monday at the main post office on Creekside Road. The bad news was that the line of customers juggling holiday packages stretched into the lobby.

The U.S. Postal Service predicted that, with 10 shopping days until Christmas, Monday would be the busiest day nationwide for mailing letters and parcels. Judging by the parking lot at the Santa Clarita post office, that forecast came true.

Through late morning and early afternoon, a steady stream of cars - sometimes backing up to the driveway on McBean Parkway - vied for the more than 50 spaces in the parking lot. The line inside the post office was often 25 deep.

Postal officials expected to do extra business this year, particularly in the overnight letters and packages that have long been the speciality of Federal Express and United Parcel Service.

``The parcel volume and priority volume, we think, is going to be up about 10 percent this year,'' said Dino Marsango, postmaster of the Santa Clarita post office.

``The (increased) package volume is due in part to the business we took on - and that stayed with us - during the UPS strike (in August). Our rates are very competitive, and our performance is superior,'' Marsango said.

Across the country, the post office expected to handle 280 million cards and letters Monday. Americans will mail more than 5 billion cards and letters during the holiday season, a 2.5 percent increase over last year, according to U.S. Postal Service Vice President Nicholas Barranca.

Laura Lowrie moved through a line at the Santa Clarita post office rather swiftly Monday. The Valencia mother of two was waiting to mail five packages to her husband's relatives in Florida, Ohio and Texas.

Sugar and caffeine were the top of her in-laws' wish list. ``See's Candy, because they don't have it on the East Coast, and Starbucks Coffee because my mother-in-law doesn't have it in her town,'' Lowrie said. She said she expected to spend $35 to mail the parcels and to buy stamps for the Christmas cards she has yet to send.

At the Postal Service's general mail facility in Castaic, authorities estimated that 2.3 million pieces of mail would be canceled Monday - more than double the daily average for the rest of the year, Marsango said. ``They feel it's going to be up about 2 percent over last year,'' he said.

To handle the volume, the Postal Service hired about 125 temporary workers across the Santa Clarita Valley for the holiday season.

Meanwhile, the Santa Clarita post office also was one of several in Southern California to expand window service to a seventh day for two weeks. Clerks helped customers Sunday and will do the same this Sunday, Marsango said.

``We're really trying to get into customer service, trying to let people know that we really want their business,'' the postmaster added.

Marsango said that, despite the widespread use of fax machines and computer electronic mail, the post office believes customers will send about 3 percent more letters - the old-fashioned way, with an envelope and a stamp - than the 1996 holiday season.

``E-mail and faxes - that's more for day-to-day business,'' Marsango said. Internet holiday greetings won't replace Christmas cards, he predicted. ``It's just not personal enough.''

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3 Photos

PHOTO (1 -- color) Postal carrier Danny Abesanis prepares to deliver the holiday mail Monday along his route around the Santa Clarita Valley.

(2 -- color) Valencia resident Laura Lowrie, right, scoots her packages forward as she waits in line Monday at the post office.

(3) A mail carrier rushes out of the Santa Clarita post office with a load of packages Monday, one of the busiest days of the year.

Shaun Dyer/Special to the Daily News