This year, the Finnish Christmas stamp is celebrating its 40th anniversary
On Monday 4 November, Itella Posti Oy will publish its new Finnish Christmas stamps, which are inspired by the nostalgic world of scrapbook pictures. The motifs for the stamps, designed by Susanna Rumpu and Ari Lakaniemi, are old drawings used on post cards or scrapbook pictures.
The EUR 0.65 stamp for Christmas greetings is the atmospheric Christmas Hug, featuring endearing child figures from an old, original post card. The background of the stamp glows warm and golden, creating the mood of candlelight.
The first-class stamp, Christmas Tree Boy, features an image photographed from of a scrapbook picture, in which a small boy in winter clothes carries home small Christmas trees in a blue-hued snowfall. The stamp sheet also has Priority labels designed to suit the mood of the stamps.
As a 2nd-class stamp, the traditional Angel can be used for various other greetings in addition to Christmas greetings. For most Finnish people, the angel image conjures up warm childhood memories.
The Christmas stamp celebrates its 40th anniversary 2013 is a year of celebration of Finnish Christmas stamps, as the first ones were published 40 years ago on November 15, 1973. In the first Christmas stamps designed by Pirkko Vahtero, a reindeer pulls Santa in a sleigh through the snow.18 million of these stamps were printed in the banknote press of the Bank of Finland. They were valued at 30 Finnish pennies.
Technical data of Finnish Christmas stamps released on November 4, 2013 (PDF)
