Christmas Cards - The Spirit of Christmas

This joyful collection of ten beautiful and diverse greeting cards form our festive stamp set for Christmas 2019. The variety of designs and sentiments we all enjoy when sending cards is a history lesson in itself and we have been able to work in partnership with the Greeting Card Association to select a representative cross section of contemporary cards.

Creative Consultant Geoff Sanderson writes...

I was honoured to be asked to curate the cards used in this very special collection of stamps on behalf of the Greeting Card Association (GCA). The designs chosen evoke the spirit of the season, whilst featuring beautiful artwork from some of our leading artists and illustrators - showcasing the work of the publishers that the GCA supports.

After training as an illustrator, and not fitting into the 80s advertising world, I decided to follow my true star; I answered a small ad looking for a greeting card designer; a career as a creative director in the greeting card industry followed and is now thirty winters old.

Starting in a design studio in Burton-on-Trent it has since taken me all around the world from Kansas City to Tokyo and back. Along the way I've designed and managed ranges for many UK retailers including Marks & Spencer, the global greetings publisher Hallmark and most recently developed personalised cards for the print-on-demand etailer moonpig.com.

Christmas is a special as well as a sacred time for many, and the Christmas card is a good and tangible way of keeping in touch as well as sharing the joy, and means much more than ubiquitous social media messages which are sent all the time.

Christmas cards also send a warming festive factor to the UK economy. We send over 96 million single Christmas cards a year, at an average price point of £1.92, and the market it is worth nearly £185m. In addition we spend an additional £230m on boxed or packed Christmas cards – another 900 million Christmas cards. Christmas cards are 12% of the £1.7Bn total UK card market.

Encouragingly, the card sending habit remains strong and we are spending more on cards for close family and friends, with 18-34 year olds sending more cards than a generation ago. Despite all the online options available, around 94% of sales still come from individuals going out to the shops to buy their cards.

To be inspired to evoke the magic, excitement and spirit of Christmas in the height of summer is never an easy thing to do; but it's something that the writers, designers and artists of the greeting card industry happily do every year and it is when most cards are created. Typically the Christmas range development process lasts twelve months; and the cards are published just in time to annoy all those who like to moan that Christmas comes earlier and earlier every year - but not me I can't get enough of Christmas.

I hope you enjoy these lovely stamps...

Merry Christmas everybody!

First Class Stamps
Santa Checking His List - Jeannine Petty ©2019, Ling Design • Postbox & Geese - Marina Brook ©2019, Marina B Designs • The Gardeners' Friend - Cordelia Hutchison ©2019, Ling Design • Christmas Tree - Marina Brook ©2019, Marina B Designs • The Nativity - Cordelia Hutchison ©2019, Ling Design

Large Value Stamps
Champagne Flutes - Rachel Hare ©2019, Belly Button Designs • Church in the Snow - Gordon Barker ©2019, Peartree Heybridge • O Little Town of Bethlehem - Cordelia Hutchison ©2019, Ling Design • Tatty Teddy - MetoYou.com ©2019, Carte Blanche Greetings • Holly Berries - Charlotte Day ©2019, Cath Tate Cards