A Queens mailman was so stressed by the number of holiday cards and gifts he was supposed to deliver this year that he simply dumped hundreds of them in the trash, court papers claim.

Ozone Park postman Daniel Darby, 25, was “overwhelmed” by the uptick in his early December mail, so he went to a neighborhood Stop & Shop the night of Dec. 2 — his first day on a new route — and bought three white garbage bags, according to Brooklyn federal court documents.

Darby then allegedly stuffed the holiday mail in the bags and dumped them in a residential garbage can. They were discovered two days later.

The cooked courier admitted to “ripping open” some of the mail “to see what it contained,” according to the criminal complaint.

He was arraigned on charges of unlawfully delaying and destroying the mail Tuesday — as was another alleged rogue postal worker.

The second mail carrier, who worked in Brooklyn, is accused of swiping about 50 gift cards from envelopes and then treating himself to $1,000 in goodies over the past year, according to court papers.

Postman James Hayden admitted to tearing open envelopes “that he believed to have gift cards enclosed” and then tossing the accompanying greeting cards in the trash, according to Brooklyn

federal court papers.

His alleged rip-off scheme came crashing down after a Florida mom called the post office in August to complain that the $100 Visa gift card she sent to her son in Red Hook never arrived.

She provided the gift card’s serial number to a federal agent, who used it to track down an in-store surveillance video of Hayden allegedly using the stolen gift for a shopping spree — while still wearing his mailman uniform.

Hayden also was nailed for using a stolen Amazon gift card a month later to have goodies delivered to his Brooklyn home, according to the court documents.

Authorities found his wallet stuffed full of gift cards before arresting him Dec. 21, the court papers state.

Hayden was charged with stealing mail.

Both men face up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Darby was released on $50,000 bail and Hayden was released on $75,000 bail. The men and their lawyers declined to comment.



Additional reporting by Natalie O’Neill