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Sending letters and mail — Animal Crossing: New Horizons guide

Giving gifts over mail is easy

A letter with a gift attached in Animal Crossing: New Horizons
A letter with a gift attached in Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

Every day as Animal Crossing: New Horizons players wake up their Nintendo Switches, the shops on their islands receive new items. Each player has a different assortment available, which means everyone playing the game will have a different selection in their shops.

One of the easiest ways to get items from other islands is to visit other players, but not everyone has the time to do that. If you want to send gifts to friends straight from your island without going through the process visiting each other, there’s an easy way to give your friends a gift: sending a letter with a gift attached via the mail service at Dodo Airlines.

You can send up to two gifts per day to each friend you’ve played with. But how do you send gifts? This guide will tell you everything you need to know about sending letters with presents in them.

How to send letters with presents attached

The mail service on your island will initially allow you to send mail to any villager who lives on your island or even your future self. To have the ability to send mail to other players, you first have to visit another player’s island or vice versa.

Orville asking a villager if they want to send a letter in Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

After two players have interacted in this way, they will both become registered mail recipients on each other’s islands. From there, sending mail to one another is a simple process.

  • Go to Dodo Airlines and interact with the card booth to the right of Orville’s desk.
  • Orville will ask you if you’d like to send a letter for the cost of 200 Bells.
  • Choose which recipient you’d like to send your letter to.
  • Select the stationary for your letter, which ranges from a list of rotating designs to standards you can always choose from.
  • Write a note on the letter.
  • To attach a present, click on the gift icon on the bottom right of the screen that appears right after you write your note.
  • You can attach most items and even money as your gift.

The letter will take a few moments to send. If you’ve sent something to a villager on your island, you’ll likely get a response from the villager thanking you for the gift.

If you’ve sent a present to a friend, it will show up in their mailbox whenever they are online.

When your friend receives their gift with your letter, they’ll instantly know what it is just from looking at the attachment. If you want your gifts to feel more like a present, you can buy wrapping paper from Nook’s Cranny.

Showing off wrapping paper in Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

To wrap a gift, select the wrapping paper in your pocket and choose the “wrap” option, and then you can choose an item to wrap.

When your friend receives a wrapped item, they’ll have to open the wrapping paper before they can see the item inside. It’s a minor touch, but it can make the process of sending gifts to one another feel a bit more entertaining.

a yellow Nintendo Switch Lite with the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe homescreen on ita yellow Nintendo Switch Lite with the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe homescreen on it
$200

Nintendo Switch consoles are often sold out, but you can still pick up the handheld-only Switch Lite, which is perfect for portable gaming.

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