Christmas stamps: do you see what I see?

For more than a decade we wrote an annual post on this blog about Russian public holidays, shining a light on Russian culture. And for the last six years we’ve been running a poll on social media, offering our followers a chance to choose a festive stamp of their preference.

2018

Naturally the competing stamps have been from Royal Mail and Russian Post.

2019

Since 2019 one tendency is evident in the British stamps: it follows the religious theme.

2020

The jolly secular mood of Russian stamps is understandable: in Russia New Year's Day comes first and is the favourite public holiday of many.

2021

Why? Because Russian Orthodox Christmas is celebrated on 7th January, a week after New Year's Day.

2022

The reason is the Russian Orthodox Church follows the Julian calendar, while most of other churches and the secular world have adopted the Gregorian calendar.

2023

There's another striking change in this year's Royal Mail stamp: the profile of the King. Even though Queen Elizabeth II passed away before Christmas 2022, the stamps were designed in advance so she is still featured in the 2022 Christmas set.

There's a lot to stamps, one can watch a country's history through the prism of stamps alone. They are similar to Christmas cards our children draw and paint, and every single one of them will one day be viewed as a sign of the times...

Merry Christmas!

[Tip: If you need any translation work doing, we are closed from 18th December to 3rd January for winter holidays.]