International work-related curiosity

[sally_maria]

Since this is the first year I've been closely involved in the long-standing British tradition of special Christmas stamps (this year's designs), I've been curious to know whether this is a unique thing.

Are there special Christmas stamps where you live? Do people send calendars (this seems to be a tradition among a significant number of British people, but not one I'd actually come across before I started working for a shop that sold them)?

Are there other traditions connected with posting for Christmas?

Comments

[naraht]

The US definitely has special Christmas stamps in several different designs. Calendars are always a decently popular Christmas gift but they're not something I would specially have associated with sending through the post.

[sally_maria]

From what I can tell, they're traditional for sending overseas, because at one time sending "printed paper" was cheaper for the same weight than other items. It's not true any more, but once you've got into the habit, I suppose it saves having to think about what to buy far-flung relatives you don't know that well.

[naraht]

Ah, that makes a lot of sense. Where I live, I don't think there are enough people with relatives overseas for anything to be traditional for overseas-sending.

[crazyscot]

NZ has Xmas stamps, but this year it also has Hobbit stamps. And coins. And passport stamps. And even a weather forecast.... http://tvnz.co.nz/hobbit-news/hangover-follows-world-premiere-5247744/video?vid=5243599

[sally_maria]

Thanks for the link, though not as cool as the one we had at Oxonmoot. :-)

[tetsubinatu.livejournal.com]

Australia has special Christmas stamps each year - they're for Christmas cards and they're a smidgeon cheaper than regular letters.

[sally_maria]

That's not a bad idea, though I suppose it makes more work for the post office staff.

Here the prices are the same, though a lot more people use 2nd class post for Christmas cards than they do the rest of the year, I think.

[didiusjulianus.livejournal.com]

I think now the prices have gone up such a lot most things get posted 2nd class (if at all) unless they are urgent as well as important. Which might mean that more things get posted 1st class I suppose, if the rest just get not-bothered-with to a greater extent?

[sally_maria]

I suspect that what I see is a skewed sample, that perhaps people who have time to post things 2nd class are more likely to already have stamps. We still get a lot of things posted 1st - the only ones for which 2nd is the most common seem to be ebay sellers sending out parcels.

People who come in to buy larger quantities of Christmas stamps are more likely to buy 2nd, compared with my experience of the rest of the year.

[didiusjulianus.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we nearly always have 2nd class stamps at home, although I did also go and buy several packs twice in November in order to have enough but not too many over. We do often have to pop in to the PO for 1st class, often as a cert of posting is also required for the same item.

(I must say though, several times this year when something was unexpectedly urgent, I just stuck 2 x 2nd class on!)

[elandulin.livejournal.com]

We have Christmas stamps in the US--same price as the rest of the year. There are usually two designs, one religious and one more "seasonal" in nature. There is also a fairly booming business every year in theme calendars--movies, animals, world landscapes, that sort of thing. And thanks to your genius Jacquie Lawson card company there in England, I send 5-6 computer Advent Calendars to friends and family every year. What a great idea they are!

[sally_maria]

We have religious ones for the 1st and 2nd class stamps as well, but they're not usually such a big deal - just to offer to people who really want them.

As I was saying to someone over on Dreamwidth, calendars seem to be a traditional gift of choice to send to family and friends overseas - most to Australia, New Zealand and Canada, though not always. Computer calendars would be another step in that direction, but of course we don't see those in the post office. ;-)

[muuranker.livejournal.com]

I had never heard of these before!

Me, I like Advent Candles. We haven't had one for a number of years, but as a child, we did, and sang carols as it burned down. So much better than the chocolate-filled advent calendars!

[elandulin.livejournal.com]

The Jacquie Lawson Advent Calendar is truly something to behold. Once ordered, it arrives on your desktop as a small, shiny snow globe, in which you can see houses and stores and snow falling. This year, it is an alpine village. Last year, it was London! Once opened, it shows, each day, a different part of village or city, where in something magical happens. It's animated, musically scored, synched to your particular time zone, and changes from daylight to night right along with you. There are trains, ski lifts, special treats, puzzles and a Christmas tree to decorate. Last year there was a tiny bit of a Christmas concert at St Paul's Cathedral, a ride on the London Eye and a trip across the Tower Bridge.

They also have cards for all occasions that you send via email. I was introduced to them about 6-7 years ago and have been sending to special people ever since--now my dad, who is 88, sends them, too! They have been doing the Advent Calendars for 3 or 4 years, I think. Just google the name; they'll come up!

We do advent candles at our house; I started a couple of years after I got married, and have been doing it ever since, for 40 years! I love them!

[muuranker.livejournal.com]

I shall have to look out for the Jacquie Lawson Advent Calendar!

I heard somewhere in the UK is using real windows in the town to make a large advent calendar as a kind of performance or artwork - that sounds like a great idea.

[didiusjulianus.livejournal.com]

First person to tell me where gets...um...a virtual prize?

[sally_maria]

I've always thought Advent candles were a nice idea, but we've never actually had one.

We do still have the Advent calendar that Mum bought for me when I was 2, which comes out every year. The doors have long-ago fallen off, but it was pretty special when we first had it, 3D and with parts that move when you pull a tab backwards and forwards, so we kept it long enough to become one of those family traditions.

[muuranker.livejournal.com]

I think calendars-at-Christmas are just because
a) it's the time of year you need a new calendar, and
b) it is fairly easy/cheap to post, and
c) they are clearly related to the place they are sent from

So only a 'tradition' in the meaning that 'people do it year after year' rather than in the meaning that there is a current, or lost, symbolic content. I would love to be corrected on this - also on hankies, bath salts, garden centre vouchers and things in wicker baskets.

PS - Santa, yes, I would like some hankies and bath salts in a wicker basket, or a garden centre voucher to buy the same. I already have a calendar; from the Derbyshire Gypsy Liaison Group - http://www.acert.org.uk/2012/10/derbyshire-gypsy-liaison-group-silver-jubilee-calendar/ - it's wonderful.

[sally_maria]

Yes, I think you're right about the reasons - we sell a lot of Cotswolds calendars to be dispatched all around the world.

Well, those wicker baskets, they're obviously ritual, aren't they. ;-)

[didiusjulianus.livejournal.com]

I was given a calendar by the removals firm with children's pictures of removal vans on it, but I didn't want/need it (too much clutter already!) so I left it in its envelope by the coffee machine near our little storage room so hopefully they will recycle it by giving it to someone else if someone else hasn't nabbed it already! ;)

[rustica.livejournal.com]

NZ has special issue stamps - however the big design at the moment is not at all Christmassy. Guess what it is? :)

NZ also has a huge thing for calendars, probably because so much of the country is clearly designed to be picture-postcard-and-calendar pretty. Also because about 22% of the population is foreign-born, so likely have friends and family overseas. It's normal to buy calendars over here complete with envelope designed for sending overseas, with weights and dimensions clearly printed on them. Quite to my surprise, I recently saw that you can buy calendars from other places over here -want one of Venice? or New York? No problem!

Something else I find strange over here on the subject (sort of) of calendars, but more particularly diaries: in the UK you can buy them for several varieties of 'year', ie the calendar year Jan-Dec, the fiscal year Apr-Mar and the university year, which I think ran Jul-Jun. In NZ, I've only seen the Jan-Dec version.

[sally_maria]

I do wonder. ;-)

Yes, the New Zealand calendar habit does sound very similar to the British one - the way people would grumble if the calendar they happened to buy didn't come with a special posting envelope...

Does the NZ academic year run from September to July, with a long winter holiday? If so, it seems like the printers are missing out on a sales opportunity - we certainly used to sell enough mid-year(academic) diaries.

[rustica.livejournal.com]

No, the academic year is Jan to Dec (or in practice, Feb till whenever; I suppose technically until end Nov when the results come out). However, the tax year is similar to the UK. Not quite the same - the tax year is to the 31st March rather than the 5th April, but I'm probably the only one who finds that even vaguely interesting.

I'm astonished you can't get mid year diaries here. Because what happens if you - I don't know - start a new job partway through the year or something, and you suddenly need a diary? You can't buy a Jan to Dec one because the shops have stopped selling those, and anyhow half of the pages would already be wasted. But I guess there just isn't the market here.

[sally_maria]

Well, I suppose that in modern terms 5th April is fairly arbitrary, even if there are good historical reasons for it. Moving it to the nearest month end probably makes sense, even though it's a shame to lose that historical link.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Do you know why the UK tax year is to 5 April?

[rustica.livejournal.com]

Yes :).

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I thought you might, but I also thought it worth asking :-)

[sally_maria]

Yes. ;-)

[didiusjulianus.livejournal.com]

This is an interesting topic (for a tired Tuesday afternoon).

I've been working on academic years for my whole life (seemlessly going from being in education to having children in education - sometimes both at once) and have bought a mid-year diary all of about twice. I wonder how many mid-year diaries (and other diaries, and calendars) are bought as gifts or get-organised gizmos that never really get used? Perhaps NZers weren't in this habit, and have moved over to electronic diaries more fully?

[sally_maria]

I never used one, that I remember, but there's definitely a significant market for them, all the same.

I'm sure some of them are bought, never to be used, but the number of people who'd buy them every year, and clamour for them months before they were released was a fairly clear sign that they were being used.

[didiusjulianus.livejournal.com]

You can buy calendars of those places here too, e.g. in Waterstones. Not a new phenomenon.

Surely NZ & Australia have Jan-Dec school/uni years and perhaps the fiscal year is the same (or only special shops sell the fiscal ones with their log books etc.)?

[morelindo.livejournal.com]

Yes, there are special Christmas stamps where I'm from (Germany).

People give each other calendars, my parents posted me one once when I was in Ireland. It's not generally a thing unless German customs around this have changed since I left five years ago.

Here, in England, people post calendars and there are special stamps. They also post silly numbers of Christmas cards so the Post Office always hires lots of temps to help them cope with mail over Christmas.

[sally_maria]

I think the calendar thing has a lot to do with the number of people that have relatives who've emigrated to Australia, New Zealand and other far-flung places.

They also post silly numbers of Christmas cards so the Post Office always hires lots of temps to help them cope with mail over Christmas.

That's a very long-standing tradition, my Dad was a temporary postman when he was a student over 50 years ago. :-)

[didiusjulianus.livejournal.com]

Define "a silly number of..." :/

[didiusjulianus.livejournal.com]

I have sent calendars (mostly to a few overseas people, occasionally in this country but not nearby) to people in the past, and my grandma sent and received a few too, but not enough for it to be a tradition - more a useful, attractive & easy to post gift for someone. I have also given close relatives calendars sometimes with pop stars, cats or whatever on them. I helped my grandfather one year to send some of Scotland to his European friends - they exchanged them every year (so more of a tradition that one, not sure which side initiated it). Unless they are very pretty ones, from a specific place, I don't bother with paper calendars now so am giving even less of them as presents.