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| Incoming Christmas cards 2023 |
I have always enjoyed both sending and receiving Christmas cards. More and more people are giving up that tradition though - and I really don't blame those who do. Postage keeps increasing with every year, while at the same time our delivery service here has shrunk to 2-3 times a week. (Either Monday-Wednesday-Friday, or Tuesday-Thursday.)
For my own part, sending cards within Sweden still costs me very little, though - as my father was a foresighted hoarder of early "forever" stamps, and I inherited lots of really early ones (1980s) from him, still valid for use within Sweden (even though postage has gone up by 1000% since then).
The inherited stamps that I could also use for international letters and cards for a while are long gone by now though - which has made me cut down quite a bit on Postcrossing (with strangers) in later years.
I do still send some postcards and letters abroad anyhow, though - so when it caught my attention shortly before Christmas that PostNord (our postal services) are again about to raise the postage (both domestic and international) by another 20% in January; I decided to follow in my father's footsteps and put in another "hoarding" order on forever stamps myself. (I did the same thing last year.)
Like magic these tiny pieces of paper will increase 20% in value between 12:59 pm on New Year's Eve and 00:01 am on New Year's Day. (And unlike the old ones from the 1980s, the modern ones are also valid for mail going abroad. One stamp for domestic post, two for international.)
So I'm not quite giving up on snail mail just yet...
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Illustration by Bing AI
8 comments:
Like you, I love sending and receiving Christmas cards, too, and I recognise two of those on your shelf - one because I sent it, the other one because I received the same one from our mutual friend :-)
Here in Germany, we have no "forever" stamps. If, for instance, a domestic letter cost 85 Cents, you use stamps that cost 85 Cents and show that amount. If next year, those letters should go up to, say, 90 Cents, you could still use your 85-stamps but would have to buy additional 5-Cents-stamps and stick those on the envelope, too.
With letters outside Germany, there used to be different zones - within Europe a certain amount, and outside Europe a bit more. Now everyting outside Germany is just one zone - no matter whether I send a Christmas card to you, to the UK or the US, the postage was all the same (1,10 Euro) this year.
Meike, we used to have different zones for letters going abroad, too, but nowadays it's all the same. Your postage for a letter abroad is still very cheap compared to ours, though. This year, it has been 30 SEK - i.e. around 3 Euro (for a postcard or letter up to 50 g). In 2024, it will be 36 SEK. (Within Sweden, half of that, i.e. 18 SEK.) - I think they introduced "forever" stamps because it involves less checking to see if correct postage has been used + they can also continue to sell old stamps at the new price as long as they still have them in stock.
Older stamps with a specific value on them are still valid as well, but those of low value are getting useless for postcards these days, as trying to use those to make up today's postage would leave no room to write anything! (I managed to use up quite a lot of inherited ones of that kind in my early days of Postcrossing, though. And glad now that I did!)
my mother loved Christmas cards and she did what you have done here, stood them and hung them on ribbons no matter how many came in. she always got tons of them because daddy was a pastor, the church members of which ever church he was pastor of all sent them cards and the churches he had pastored in the past still sent them. the more she got the more she loved them. she would love to do postcrossing like you do if she were still on this old planet. the postage here is doing the same thing. i did not hink about it but i need to buy a packet because I think i only have 4 for emergencys like bills that someone will not take credit/debit cards.. I use about 2 stamps a year, so one packet of 20 should last me the rest of my life
Hello. Cards still have more meaningful points than e-mail.
I wish you a wonderful holiday season.
Sandra, I do like having mine "on display" as well - I started with the ribbons after moving to this apartment, because that corner is perfect for it. I kind of got the idea from a couple I knew who used to hang theirs on ribbons in their Christmas tree (which I've never seen anyone else do).
Hi there, and thanks for visiting and commenting. I agree, cards somehow do come with a special personal touch.
Our 'forever' stamps which I buy both for the saving and because they are usually very interesting are only valid for use within the UK
Graham, the very first ones issued here were like that, but nowadays they are valid for letters going abroad as well. (One stamp within Sweden, two for abroad.)
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