Homemade Play Mailbox and Mail

When Z was 18 months old and we went to visit family for Christmas we kept her and her same-age cousin happy for days with an overturned cardboard box with a slot cut in the bottom and a deck of playing cards. The two infants, who wrestled over toys in almost any other context, spent a shocking number of hours quietly picking up cards off the floor and carefully placing them in the slot. Whenever they ran out, someone picked up the box and moved it a couple of feet away, instantly generating a new pile of cards. My mother later told me that my nephew was still engrossed in that activity weeks later.

A year later, Z is still moderately interested in putting cards through slots, and very interested in the concept of mail. We've been on the prowl for good role-playing toys, and are collecting items for a dress-up box to give her on her third birthday. We've also been getting a lot of packages lately.


I turned a priority mail box from a recent shipment of pet medication into a mailbox, and Jenni and I created a few "letters" - colorful envelopes with card stock "letters" to stiffen them, postmarked with stamplike stickers and labeled with our return address. I left the front of the box open so that Z could retrieve her letters after dropping them in the mailbox, and she has quickly picked up that said letters can be "delivered" to a variety of recipients.

Making the mailbox was simple. I cut a large slot in the lid, making sure it was big enough to allow the letters to drop into the box easily without hitting the back of the chamber. Then I cut a piece of construction paper for the front and back of the door, and traced the opening on each. For the front I cut the opening in an "X" from the center to wrap as four flaps through the slot; for the inner piece I cut the slot out of entirely, so that it could cover up the flaps reaching in from the front.

I punched a pair of holes in the back of the mailbox to run a piece of ribbon through, and made a couple of holes in the top for good measure. I did this intending to allow it to be hung in more than one way (from the top to hang over a doorknob, for example) but attaching it to the leg of our kitchen shelving turned out to work much better using both fasteners. I then taped another piece of construction paper to the inside back wall of the mailbox to cover my loop of ribbon, both to keep busy hands away from it and to keep the mail from snagging on it on its way into the box.

We also outfitted Z with a small military satchel I once carried books and papers in. The bag was originally used, an Iraq war veteran once explained to me, to carry C-4 explosives and landmines, and even with the strap shortened to her carrying length it's a bit large for comfort. (Making her a new, smaller satchel would be a great sewing project for Jenni.) In the meantime I'll make another mailbox to place somewhere else in the living room so she can establish a more complex mail route.

The lucky recipient

If you don't have the time for this craft project, you can buy Melissa and Doug's version for under $30. Mine cost about $1!