Is it too early for Season's Greetings?

No, not for me it isn't... I send Christmas/New Year/Season's greetings cards in the post, and many of those go overseas. Postal services can be on the slow side in the last quarter of the year. I have already sent some cards out, a couple to Canada were posted last month after the blanket strike ended. At least one of these cards has arrived. I did also receive a couple of Christmas cards in October, one was posted in Australia, and the other was from within the UK. 

Why do I even still send cards in a digital world when I am an atheist? OK, most of the cards will accompany letters so is a little extra for the recipient to smile about. It is still a nice thing to do, a physical reminder that I care. Digital greetings mean very little to me. Have some been written with supposed Artificial Intelligence? Have the words been cut/pasted from somewhere else? Are they even genuine feelings from the person sending them? Perhaps it is plain laziness, can't be bothered but better do something, let the computer do it. After all, Facebook reminds us of birthdays our "FB friends" have allowed to be somewhat public.

One in-law doesn't like cards, because they don't say much. She'd rather chat to people instead, and hear personal news. Fair enough. It is connecting. Some people send a letter with the card informing friends and family about the year's news and events, for example, someone might say that their eldest daughter passed with distinction a clarinet exam, or their son has started a degree at university.. These snippets of personal news may have been plastered all over social media, but then, not everyone is on every type of asocial media. 

I usually buy cards supporting charities I like. Though I've not been able to find many cards suitable for my needs - I don't like square ones as they may fall foul of international mail minimum sizing, or if they need  to be sent onwards in the US, they'll attract a non-machinable surcharge, or just inconvenient to use with the letter I've written folded to, say, A6 size, and then won't go into the envelope. 

 

Monopoly - how easy is it to buy commemorative stamps?

I was unable to visit my lovely little sub post office for the Monopoly stamps on day of issue, because I was away on a short break. The stamps were issued on 16th October 2025. 

Monopoly stamp with dice

On the 17th, I visited two different post offices. One was in a convenience store but had its own counters. They only had a presentation pack; something I did not want, but luckily did not have long to queue! The other post office was inside a WHS TG Jones, again with its own counters. There was a small queue but when I reached the counter, the clerk said that he did not have the commemorative stamps at his counter, and that I should go wait at the closed travel money counter and await a colleague. I was served after a few more minutes. They had sold some of the Monopoly stamps already so bought a strip of 5 stamps (just in case my lovely sub post office didn't have any left by the time I was able to visit later in the month).  

A Monopoly stamp with dice

On the 18th, a Saturday, I had time before my bus left to go and visit another post office. This one was in its own building, likely to have been a Crown main post office. They thought that the Monopoly stamps were due out later in the month, and had not been brought out of the back for sale. The sheets were dished out between two counters, and I came away with another set of stamps. 

My little sub post office did still have Monopoly stamps when I visited earlier this week, so I even bought more Monopoly stamps, just one more set! They've already had the Christmas stamps in. I mentioned I'd seen the 2nd class and 2nd class large designs for the digital stamp mailings (shown up on the Royal Mail Wholesale website). I'm not convinced that this year's Christmas stamps are a well-designed issue. Perhaps not as good as the selection of Christmas stamps below.

A selection of Christmas stamps

 

Christmas wind down.

A week now until Christmas Day, and as a snail-mailer, I am starting to wind down. I still have a few domestic letters and cards to send out, so will try to get those out in the next day or two, via second class. A headline in today’s Sunday Times newspaper reads, “Undercover footage shows Royal Mail leaving letters on the shelf” and this includes letters marked NHS, various governmental post, bills; so there is no point in using first class stamps domestically. A first class stamp costs £1.25, and a second class stamp is only (!) 75p. Maybe I will use a combination of older but still valid stamps to make up that second class postage rate.

After the mad rush, I expect by Tuesday, I’ll have finished all my festive mail. I may still write a letter or two especially if able to post by Friday afternoon. Although there should be a postal collection on the Saturday: the collection time is early morning from my local postboxes (no earlier than 7am says one), I think it is better to assume nothing will be collected until Wednesday, the next postal day.

5 days seems a long time then to be able to post a letter (I don’t like leaving post for long periods all alone and cold in the box), or receive any. Perhaps for the letter writer who communicates with friends mostly through snailmail, it could feel quite lonely. There’s nothing wrong with writing a letter and holding onto it for days before posting, but then, maybe I’d change my mind about what I wrote, or maybe a cup of tea will get spilled across.. I had been about to start a Christmas card when my hot cup of tea spilled across, drowning the card, the cover of a notebook I had the card on, some loose stickers, stamp sheet selvage, and the tail end of a roll of washi. Desk tidy still in progress.

I have a few localish friends I see in town who travel by bus, who live alone. Their villages might as well be in the middle of nowhere;  there’s no social gathering place nor shop. No or poor Sunday bus service, and again same for bank holidays. A long time to be isolated. At least I will have some family with me. 

I shall still be thinking about letters. I am planning to reorganise my stored letters. Maybe even those where correspondence has not continued. I can’t remember the names of everyone I have corresponded with since I restarted snailmailing in 2007. 16+ years of letters, some stored in fancy “shoe” boxes. 

I will finish tidying my desks, and drawers/boxes of stationery. I have become a bit of a stationery hoarder (also books too). 

I do have a used stamp collection I could organise some into a new stockbook. Stamp hinges are horrid things!  No idea how many of those I licked and affixed stamps to my worldbuilder album over 35 years ago! However, most of the more recently acquired stamps have brought letters to me and remain on the envelopes.