New Issues -
🇬🇧 Royal Mail -
3 November 2026 - Christmas, the Christmas story - 5 self-adhesive stamps from sheets (total cost £11.16), 2 self-adhesive stamps from booklets of 8 x 2nd (£7.28) and booklets of 8 x 1st (£14.40), 1 miniature sheet containing all 5 stamps (£11.16) and 1 ‘Collectors sheet’ containing 10 stamps - 2 sets (£23.50). Designed by Hat-trick Design from art by Rebecca Sutherland and printed in gravure by Cartor and perforated 15 x 14.5.Rating:- ***.
Royal Mail has once more issued stamps emphasising the true underlying nature of Christmas as it was celebrated in Britain for centuries - that of celebration of the birth of Christ. The Christians are said to have chosen this time of the year to commemorate the anniversary to replace festivals held by heathen religions they were supplanting and which were intended to raise their spirits in deepest winter around the winter solstice when things looked particularly bleak - the ancient Romans celebrated the Saturnalia and the Scandinavians celebrated Yule. England also, unlike most other countries, has a state religion - Anglicanism - and it therefore does not seem unreasonable for Royal Mail to emphasise the religious aspects of the Christmas festival even though the majority of the population is no longer Christian let alone Anglican. Perhaps nowadays winter festivals are not even necessary to raise morale - a daily dose of Vitamin D might be just as effective.
An interesting debate can be held on the subject of Royal Mail’s choice of theme for its Christmas stamps but that can be said about practically every issue it now releases including vastly expensive sets commemorating American films and television programmes, American cartoons and random inconsequential subjects such as ducks, mushrooms and aging musicians whom will be forgotten in a hundred years time. It must be said that Royal Mail’s Christmas stamps are very similar in design to those of recent years - I find it difficult to identify which year a particular stamp was issued after three or four years of this much of a muchness - it really begs the question of whether or not the release of similar stamps every year is really necessary - why not just reprint the previous year’s issue and save on designer’s fees? Regardless, depicted above are yet another year of Christmas stamps.
