Every year, the Royal Mail bring out the new Christmas stamps. They alternative between a religious themed set and a secular set. 2019’s Christmas stamps take a religious approach, bringing the nativity story alive. I quite like the style of this year’s collection. There are eight different stamps in the collection. It is very colourful, featuring beautiful paper-cut art and illustrations. You may have already seen these around but I wanted to share them with you, in case you hadn’t.
Behind the Stamps:
This year’s stamps feature the three wise men, the angel Gabriel, Joseph, the shepherds, the manger and Mary with baby Jesus. I love the detailed art work, portraying the whole nativity scene. The artwork is so lovely that these stamps would make beautiful posters too. These brightly coloured range were designed with a three-dimensional quality to them. It’s incredible how much work has gone into these stamps. The original papercuts were created by Hari & Deepti – a husband-wife duo that create incredible papercut scenes. This papercut became the stamp with the three wise men (the purple £2.30 stamp).
As you can imagine, there was a lot of work behind the design and development of these stamps. I absolutely love how these stamps were created, which is why I wanted to share them with you today. At a quick glance, you would never suspect that they were all created from intricate papercuts like this.
Christmas Stamps 2019:
I am pleased that the majority of these stamps come in packs of 50. It’s easy to find 1st or 2nd class stamps in larger packs of 50 or 100. However, the other stamps in the special stamp issues – such as £1.35 – often need to be brought as part of a multi-pack with different nominals.
For Christmas, however, it is possible to purchase packs of 50 for these nominals, which makes it much easier to send international post or larger post, such as small packages. It is possible to get plain fixed stamp sheets all year around. However, the themed ones tend to be my preferred choice. Unfortunately, the range of themed stamp sheets in £1.35 – which is my most commonly used stamp – is very low unless you buy mixed nominal packs. Given that I don’t really use the other nominals (other than 1st and 2nd class), it would be a waste for me to buy many mixed packs.
I am forever hopeful that they carry this on and offer this in different sets all year round. I tend to send more international post than anything else, after all. However, this pack will be very useful for sending Christmas cards internationally.
The last posting dates for Christmas are coming up soon, however. If you wish to send letters or packages before Christmas, make sure you check out the posting dates. For example, 14th December is the last date for International Standard to USA.
Where can you get them from?
If you are interested in getting your hand on some, act now. These are still on sale at post offices and online. They will likely stop selling soon, however. Remember, you can also use these stamps next year. The 1st and 2nd class stamps will still be available to use. And the others are fixed rate post stamps anyway.
Grab yourself a sheet of 50 if you are planning to large mailing:
- 1st Class – Stamp Sheet
- 2nd Class – Stamp Sheet
- £1.35 – Stamp Sheet
- £1.55 – Stamp Sheet
- £1.60 – Stamp Sheet
- £2.30 – Stamp Sheet
Alternatively, shop the whole collection here. You’ll also be able to get smaller stamp packs from the Royal Mail website or from post offices – or anywhere that sells stamps.
Disclaimer: The images were acquired from Royal Mail’s website and from Hari & Deepti’s social media. I did not take them myself.