Y ou can always tell when the Christmas season has arrived at the Oak Harbor post office.

The lines grow longer, the letters and packages seem to triple in number, and the cookies arrive.

Yes. The cookies.

For the last 20 years, Jackie Dalton has baked dozens upon dozens of cookies as a special treat for the clerks and postal carriers in Oak Harbor “just because they deserve it.”

“They’re good to me, so I’m good to them,” she said.

And Thursday at just after 10 a.m., Dalton again made her annual visit to the post office with eight big platters of cookies.

As she made her way through the back of the building toward the post office break room, a small crowd of workers tailed along behind her, waiting for the cookies to be unveiled.

Comments like “Thanks, Jackie,” “These look prettier every year,” and “I appreciate you remembering us year after year” wafted through the air as workers crowded the table reaching for cookies.

“She’s a sweetheart,” said employee Dan Miller. “She does this every year and we really appreciate it. It keeps the carriers happy.”

This holiday pick-me-up is exactly what the postal employees need as Christmas day inches closer and closer. With only three working days left until Christmas, the post office is operating with a full staff of 17 clerks, 20 local and 13 rural carriers. Postal clerks said they’ve been busy for the past two weeks, and are swamped this week, with a half-hour average wait to mail out those last-minute cards and packages.