Zip’s Mailbox Club › The Wonder Library
Published August 31, 2026
Little Letters Club, from Growing Up Littles, mails one themed activity letter a month to children ages 3 to 6, listed at $11.00 a month. Zip’s Mailbox Club mails two packages a month for ages 3 to 12 at $19.99 a month or $199.99 for a prepaid year, and Zip writes to your child by name and answers what your child sends back. Little Letters Club is the cheaper envelope and a lovely fit for a preschooler; Zip’s is the one to pick if you want the writing itself to be about your specific child and the mail to go both ways. Full disclosure: we make one of these two, so read this as a maker’s map of the field, not a neutral review site. Every price and detail below was read off each company’s own website on August 31, 2026, check theirs before you buy.
Choose Little Letters Club if you want an inexpensive monthly activity envelope for a 3 to 6 year old. One themed letter a month with book recommendations, craft ideas, recipes and a couple of small surprises, made by a former educator, at a price that is roughly half of ours. If your child is four and what you want is something delightful to open and do together, that is a genuinely good buy.
Choose Zip’s Mailbox Club if you want the mail written to your child and answered. Two mailings a month, written to your child by name about the things they love, with a plain envelope and a real postage stamp in every package so they can write back, and what they write shows up in the next letter from Zip.
Several unrelated services use almost the same name, so it is worth checking the address bar before you subscribe. This comparison is about Little Letters Club run by Growing Up Littles, at growinguplittles.com, founded by Kendall, a former educator. Checked on August 31, 2026, at least two other live mail services sit on nearly identical names: a stationery mail club at littleletterclub.com, and a monthly story subscription calling itself The Little Letter Club at thelittleletterclub.com. Different companies, different products, different prices. We have deliberately not linked to any of them here, but the names are easy to confuse and search results mix them together freely.
| Little Letters Club | Zip’s Mailbox Club | |
|---|---|---|
| What arrives | A themed activity letter with book recommendations, craft ideas, recipes and music, a “Pass It On” postcard to send to someone else, and 2–3 small themed surprises | A letter from Zip written to your child by name, a collectible Crew card, and a year-long mystery, plus a second mailing later in the month |
| How often | 1 mailing a month, mailed on the 15th for the following month | 2 mailings a month (24 a year) |
| Price as listed | $11.00 a month, month to month, shipping calculated at checkout | $19.99 a month, or $199.99 for a prepaid year |
| Works out to | About $11.00 per envelope, before shipping | About $10.00 per mailing, or about $8.33 prepaid |
| Ages | 3 to 6 | 3 to 12, with the writing matched to the child’s reading level |
| Personalization | Envelope addressed to the child if you enter their name in the shipping address; the letter inside is the month’s theme | Name, age, and the child’s own interests and past replies shape the letter |
| Child writes back? | Not described on their site. The “Pass It On” postcard is for the child to mail to someone else | Yes. every package ships with a plain envelope and a real stamp, and Zip remembers what the child writes |
| Made by | Growing Up Littles, founded by Kendall, a former educator | Mack, a dad who writes and hand-packs the mail; launched July 2026 |
| Terms | Month to month, cancel or pause anytime; renews on the 15th and that month’s letter is not refundable once processed | Monthly or prepaid year, plus a first letter guarantee |
Sourced from growinguplittles.com and this site, August 31, 2026. Terms change, confirm on their pages.
Their product page lists Little Letters Club at $11.00, billed month to month, with shipping calculated at checkout. That is one envelope a month, so the cost per envelope is $11.00 plus whatever shipping comes to. Their FAQ states the club is month to month only right now, so there is no six or twelve month term to buy down the price, and it also states you can cancel or pause anytime, that the subscription renews on the 15th, and that once a month’s payment has processed that letter is already being prepared and is not refundable.
Zip’s Mailbox Club is $19.99 a month, or $199.99 for a prepaid year. That covers two mailings a month for one child, a letter package at the start of the month and a second delivery in the middle of the month, which is 24 mail moments a year. Per envelope that is about $10.00, or about $8.33 on the prepaid year, so we are cheaper per piece of mail and more expensive per month. See our pricing page for current details, and how much a kids mail subscription costs for the wider price range in this category.
We say plainly that we are not the budget option. What the extra buys is writing built around one specific child, a story that carries across a whole year, and a reply loop that closes.
Their own website does not describe a reply path, as of August 2026. The envelope contains a themed letter and a “Pass It On” postcard, and their site is clear about what that postcard is for: sharing the joy of snail mail with somebody else. It is the child writing outward, which is a lovely thing, but it is not the club writing back. We looked across their homepage, product page and FAQ and did not find a described way for a child to send something in and be answered.
Zip’s is built around exactly that half of the loop. Every package ships with a plain envelope and a real postage stamp, and when a child sends something back, a scribble, a drawing, a dictated sentence or a full letter, that detail is remembered and shows up in a later letter from Zip. We wrote about why that changes the experience in what happens when your child writes back.
On the envelope, yes; in the writing, their site does not say so. Little Letters Club’s product page tells you to enter your child’s name in the shipping address if you want the envelope addressed to them, which is a real and underrated bit of magic, a four-year-old seeing their own name on an envelope does not care who typed it. The letter inside is described on their site as that month’s themed letter, one theme for the club, with the activities, book recommendations and recipes that go with it. That is personalization on the envelope rather than in the writing.
Zip’s works differently: the letter is written to one child, uses their name inside the letter as well as on the envelope, and draws on what that child likes and what they said last time. If you want to see the difference in practice, how it works walks through it.
Little Letters Club states ages 3 to 6. Zip’s Mailbox Club serves ages 3 to 12. Their band is tight and they are honest about it, which is a point in their favor, the activities are pitched at preschool and kindergarten and they do not pretend otherwise.
Ours stretches wider because the writing is matched to the reading level: a three-year-old gets a letter a grown-up reads aloud with pointing and marking, a ten-year-old gets more words, more plot, and clues they can work out alone. That matters in two situations, if you have siblings at different ages, and if you want the subscription to still fit the same child in three years. See mail for 5-year-olds or mail for 9-year-olds and up for what changes with age.
Little Letters Club mails once a month, on the 15th, for the following month. Their product page gives the worked example: September’s letters go out on August 15, and if you subscribe after August 15 you start with October’s. That is a batch schedule, and the practical consequence is worth knowing before you buy as a gift, a subscription bought late in the month may be up to six weeks from the first envelope landing.
Zip’s sends two mailings a month, one at the start of the month and one in the middle of the month. That is 24 arrivals a year rather than 12, which is the main reason our per-envelope cost is lower even though our monthly price is higher.
These two are not the only shapes in this category. LettersLetter lists $11.99 a month for a monthly illustrated story letter for ages 5 to 11, at a similar price with an older age band. Sunny the Mail Snail lists $58.00 for three months, $96.00 for six and $188.00 for twelve, and sends weekly, so it is the volume pick, we compared it head to head in Sunny the Mail Snail vs. Zip’s Mailbox Club. And activity boxes send kits and craft materials instead of letters, which suits a builder more than a reader.
All of them are laid out together in our comparison of kids’ letter subscriptions. If you are still working out whether this whole category is for you, start with snail mail for kids or the kids mail subscription checklist.
Pick Little Letters Club if any of these describe you. Your child is three to six and you want an activity-led envelope rather than a story. Budget is the deciding factor and $11.00 fits where $19.99 does not. You want book recommendations, crafts and recipes you can do together, essentially a monthly plan for a rainy afternoon. You like that it is made by a former early-childhood educator. Or you are buying for a childcare group or a classroom, where a bundle of activity ideas gets more use than a letter written to one named child.
Pick Zip’s if the mail being about your child, and answering your child, is the point. You want letters that name your child’s actual dog, actual best friend, actual obsession with sharks, and that change as those things change. You want your child to write and be answered, so the mailbox becomes a conversation rather than a delivery. Your child is older than six, or you have more than one child at different ages. Or you want one continuing story across a full year rather than twelve separate themes.
Zip’s Mailbox Club launched in July 2026. Zip writes to your child by name every month and reads and answers what your child sends back. You can see how it works or what actually arrives in the envelope.
Their own website does not describe a reply path as of August 2026. Little Letters Club mails a themed letter to the child, and the envelope includes a Pass It On postcard, but that postcard is for the child to send to somebody else, not a way to write to the club and be answered. If a reply loop matters to you, ask them before you subscribe. Zip’s Mailbox Club is built the other way around: every package ships with a plain envelope and a real postage stamp so your child can write back, and what your child writes is remembered and used in later letters from Zip.
Their product page lists Little Letters Club at $11.00, billed month to month, with shipping calculated at checkout, as of August 2026. There is no discounted six month or twelve month term listed; their FAQ says the club is currently month to month only. Zip’s Mailbox Club is $19.99 a month or $199.99 for a prepaid year. Check their site for current pricing before you buy.
Their product page and FAQ both say ages 3 to 6, and their homepage adds that any child who loves mail and hands on activities will enjoy it. Zip’s Mailbox Club serves ages 3 to 12, with the writing matched to the child’s reading level, so it keeps working for an older sibling or for the same child in a few years.
The envelope is addressed to the child if you enter the child’s name in the shipping address, which their product page tells you to do. The letter inside is that month’s theme and the same theme goes to the club, so it is personalized on the envelope rather than in the writing. Zip’s letters are written to one child by name and use that child’s age, interests, and past replies.
Once a month, on the 15th, for the following month. Their product page gives the example that September letters are mailed on August 15, and says a subscription placed after August 15 starts with October’s letters. Zip’s Mailbox Club sends two mailings a month, one at the start of the month and one in the middle of the month, which is 24 mail moments a year.
It depends on what you want more of. For two way mail that remembers what your child writes back, and for a wider age range, Zip’s Mailbox Club is $19.99 a month or $199.99 for a prepaid year for ages 3 to 12. For a monthly illustrated story letter at a lower price, LettersLetter lists $11.99 a month for ages 5 to 11. For weekly mail, Sunny the Mail Snail lists $58.00 for three months, $96.00 for six, and $188.00 for twelve.
Yes, and it is easy to land on the wrong one. This comparison is about Little Letters Club run by Growing Up Littles at growinguplittles.com. Checked on August 31, 2026, at least two other live mail services use nearly the same name: a stationery mail club at littleletterclub.com and a monthly story subscription that calls itself The Little Letter Club at thelittleletterclub.com. They are separate businesses with separate prices. Check the address bar before you subscribe.
Every letter comes from Zip. Zip reads every letter a child sends back, and Zip always writes back, so the next letter picks up where they left off. Behind the scenes, Zip's Mailbox Club was founded by Mack, a dad who writes, personalizes, and hand-packs the mail behind these guides. Read the founder story →
Personalized real mail for your child every month, a letter from Zip, a collectible Crew card, and a year-long mystery only your child can help solve.
Join the Mailbox Club →A collection of essays about childhood, curiosity, imagination, and slowing down.