MARYSVILLE – This postman always rings more than twice – at least around Christmas.

Every December, letter carrier Don Blomdahl wears a string of bells to help get himself and others in the Christmas spirit.

“She calls me ‘Jingles’,” he said of one woman when his bells ring as he comes into her office.

He also wears a Santa hat and carries around candy canes to give to children. Last year he added battery-operated colorful Christmas lights to his mail truck, and this year he added a 6-inch-tall Christmas tree.

“I don’t say Happy Holidays,” he said. “I say Merry Christmas. They can’t do that in the stores because it’s not p.c. (politically correct) unless the customers says it first.”

Blomdahl wanted to be a mailman since he was a kid. So when he retired from the Navy in 1998 after trying a few other jobs he got one with the postal service in 2000 near Christmas time.

When he was in the Navy he used to play Santa for military families. “I used to weigh a lot more,” he said.

When he left, he was allowed to keep the Santa hat. “It means a lot to me,” he said.

He started wearing it when he got his permanent route in 2006.

“The Pinewood elementary kids knew me as the mailman who helped Santa out” by giving candy canes, he said.

But Blomdahl isn’t just about Santa. As the assistant pastor at Fellowship Baptist Church in north Marysville, he also is about sharing the true meaning of Christmas.

“Christmas and commercialism is blown way out of portion,” he said.

So, whenever he gets a gift from someone, which happens somewhat often for mail carriers, he always responds with a thank you card and a passage from the gospel. He said he has never received a sour response for doing that.

“I had to try. It’s who I am,” he said, adding only a co-worker has ever complained about his religious encouragment.

He often gives gifts back to customers, too, usually candy. “I grew up in a candy store,” he said.

One family had just moved in, and Blomdahl asked the parents if could give their kids a gift. He gave them a pretend pet. “The kids loved that pet because it moved and barked,” he said.

Another time he left a gift and never even got credit for it. The kids thought it came from Santa. Blomdahl doesn’t care.

“It’s a chance to interact with people,” he said. “It brings big smiles to people’s faces.”

Blomdahl and his wife, Cindy, are such lovers of Christmas that they keep a Christmas Village up all the time.

“My wife gave me permission to have it out all year long,” he said. He has been collecting buildings for his village at about two a year since 2001.