With the holidays in full swing and Christmas just around the corner, the United States Postal Service says they expect today will be the busiest mailing day of the year.

Based on the statistics from past years, the two Western New York District Processing and Distribution Centers in Buffalo and Rochester will handle about 85 million letters and Rochester alone is expected to handle about 5.8 million packages this season.

The Postal Service expects to deliver around 17.9 billion letters, cards and packages between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day.

"Today in our mail processing we'll get about four times the letter and card volume, so we'll open those operations early," said Karen Mazurkiewicz, USPS Spokesperson. "We'll have trucks collecting from the blue boxes earlier in the day and we'll just try to get the mail in the system and out."

The Postal Service suggests that you try to avoid the rush and mail early this year, or even mail packages straight from your home.

For shipping information, shipping deadlines for the holidays and even some discounts visit the USPS web site at www.usps.com or call 1-800- ASK-USPS (1-800-275-8777).