If Christmas is a little bit messy, that’s OK.
I’ve enjoyed making some of my Christmas cards from stack of vintage postcards I found in a second hand book shop inKeswick, they are reproductions of stamps issued by the post office in the 1970s and 80s. Some had a Christmas theme, like the one above, published in 1981 I wonder what Samantha Brown is up to now, I hope she is still having as much fun with paint as she did back in 1981?
There were some very pretty ones. 
This was a favourite
Some were not seasonal at all. I just chose them because they had a link to interests and hobbies of the intended recipient.
We’ve a friend. MR, who is a postal historian, I was delighted to find a postcard for him that celebrated postal history. Spot on, couldn’t be better.
Every year we always await eagerly the arrival of MR’s Christmas card to us, as we are curios to see what combination of stamps he has used, they are never recent issues, and often include 1/2p denominations, I guess they must raise an eyebrow or too in the sorting office, they make us smile, we try to reciprocate, I’ve even added a Greenshield stamps to his card before now, along with the correct postage, of course.
I wasn’t very quick off the mark, making or sending these cards this year, I didn’t start making them until after my brothers funeral.
One card I was delighted to find was of an old English Sheepdog, it was the perfect one for a friend who is mourning the loss of his own dog of the same breed.
Meanwhile our card from MR landed on the door mat, bearing the very same postage stamp as the postcard I’d just written and was about send.
Shall we calculate the odds on that happening? Or shall we stick to stamp collecting?
Happy Christmas one and all.
Uphilldowndale 