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Emma Zielinski wasn’t sure how her business selling unclaimed mystery mail would fare at the Christmas Village in Philadelphia this year, or if she’d even be accepted into the holiday market at all.

“I didn’t think they’d take us because we’re not handmade, but when I picked up my vendor badge, they were like, ‘We’ve been waiting for you to apply!’” she said.

As it turns out, thousands of people from across the region have also been waiting for the chance to buy orphaned packages that never found their way home and nobody went to look for — the contents of which remain shrouded to both Zielinski and the buyers until after they are purchased.

“The Christmas Village has really turned my business upside down,” she told me. “I don’t think anyone realized this was going to happen.”

From boxes to heavily-taped-up opaque bags, Zielinski is selling about 300 to 500 items a day, each between $10 and $40 a pop, based on weight. On the opening weekend for her Chain Mail Unclaimed hut, which is located in the interior courtyard of City Hall, she sold two weeks of inventory in just two days — and business hasn’t slowed down since.

Philadelphians, she’s found, are always up for a good surprise.

“They are down to party and see what’s going on,” Zielinski said. ”It’s a really good vibe in Philly when we do events, people are a lot of fun and up for trying something new and playing along.”

The element of surprise

When I arrived around 1 p.m. on Thursday, I was shocked to find Chain Mail Unclaimed had one of the only lines at the Christmas Village, aside from the ever-popular raclette cheese stand.

“To be compared to the raclette stand is quite an honor,” Zielinski said.

As I was waiting in line, a young man who’d just purchased a package opened it on the spot and pulled out what appeared to be a spandex elf suit — in a women’s medium.

“At least it’s seasonally appropriate,” I said.

When my turn came, I dug in a large bin and rustled through a couple shelves with the crowd, massaging the bags and shaking the boxes to see if I could prognosticate what was inside of them. Unlike Christmas at home, these tactics are totally fair game at Chain Mail Unclaimed.

I was pretty sure one of the packages had wicker baskets in it, and another, a pair of shoes, but beyond that it was hard to decipher the contents. All of the $10 items were gone, so I settled on two $15 packages and one for $20. All three are soft goods in opaque bags secured with clear tape, two of which came from the U.S. Postal Service and one from the UPS Store.

Beyond that, I know nothing about them. Even the sender and intended recipient’s names have been artfully covered up with Chain Mail Unclaimed stickers by Zielinski and her crew.

I intend to give one package to my husband (he signed up to deal with the consequences of marrying a total rando) and one each to my Secret Santa recipients at our respective family gatherings.

I can’t wait to see what’s inside. I’m getting older and by the time Christmas rolls around, sometimes I forget what I’ve bought people anyway, but with this it’s guaranteed to be a surprise for the recipients and for me.

I mean, these gifts could literally be anything! They could contain lost Inca gold, the French crown jewels stolen from the Louvre, or a heretofore unknown Dunlap broadside printing of the Declaration of Independence.

Of course, they could be total rubbish or completely embarrassing. I hope my beloved, self-proclaimed “spinster aunt” isn’t going to open a gift of lacy red lingerie before our entire family this Christmas, but sometimes, these are the chances we take in life, and actually, that would be pretty entertaining.

Because part of the fun of giving a gift like this is getting to tell the story behind it, which is why I pshawed a fellow customer in line who requested that I open my packages on the spot.

“Ma’am, these are gifts,” I said, before walking away with my treasures.

‘The tip of the iceberg’

Zielinski, of Lawrenceville, N.J., said she was inspired to create her business after seeing a video of someone on social media visiting a similar pop-up shop at a farmers market in Paris.

She was already attending vendor events in the region for her permanent jewelry business, Off the Chain Studios, and thought this could be a good companion to it.

“It’s exciting, it builds a crowd, and it’s also an entirely different crowd,” Zielinski said. “The person who gets a bracelet welded on won’t necessarily buy an unclaimed package.”

Chain Mail Unclaimed — a name that’s a nod to both her original business and the archaic tradition of chain mail letters — opened in April 2024. Zielinski started with pop-up shops at area weekend events like the Trenton Punk Rock Flea Market and the Northern Liberties Night Market before leveling up to the multiweek Christmas Village in Philadelphia this year.

She works with a broker who deals with warehouses across the country where mail sits unclaimed, overstocked, or returned and then gets auctioned off.

“The amount of unclaimed packages is insane. This is the tip of the iceberg, if they don’t get bought, they get incinerated,” she said. “I think we’ve all returned something, but you don’t think what the next step is.”

Zielinksi said she was already aware of human overconsumption as a whole, having been a fashion school student, but she told me this business gives her a whole new perspective.

“People question the legality — yes, it’s legal. Where do you think it goes? It doesn’t just go somewhere and live a happy life, it gets thrown out,” she said.

And suddenly, I was transported to the Island of Misfit Toys from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and my heart ached. Charlie-in-the-box deserves a happy life too, darn it, especially around the holidays!

‘Who ordered these?’

Zielinski usually orders six months of stock, or 24 pallets, at a time, but the Christmas Village has upended her business and she’s ordered three times that in the last two weeks alone. Her broker is now on stand-by for the remainder of the season and her staffing has tripled to match the demand.

“People are excited this is here. It also fills a great white elephant gift niche,” she said. “It takes the responsibility off of you if you don’t know what to get someone and it’s a fun talking point.”

Packages are typically sold through her website as well, but right now that’s on pause as she tries to keep the Christmas Village stocked. Sometimes she’ll get big items she can’t sell in a palette, like furniture, and she works with Habitat for Humanity and local nonprofits to give those things away.

Zielinski swears she doesn’t open any package before she sells it, nor does she keep any for herself (“I am a total maximalist so once I get started, I could not stop”), but she does love hearing about what her customers received.

So far, the most impressive find was an 18-karat gold diamond bracelet that retails for $4,000.

And the strangest?

“It was a set of animal pregnancy tests, which really took me back,” she said. “Who ordered these? What are the circumstances? I need to know the backstory. That part drives me crazy.”

Zielinski said what’s considered a good find is also very subjective. The other day, a woman opened a package and discovered a deadbolt inside. She told Zielinski her door’s been blowing open and it was just what she needed.

“Once, a girl got the perfume she wears,” Zielinski said. “It’s bizarre, but sometimes these items find their way back to where they’re supposed to be.”