Some readers may have seen the designs for this years 2nd class and 2nd class Large stamp designs which Royal Mail have made available to direct mailing houses for their Christmas campaigns. Inexplicably this was done on the (publicly viewable) Royal Mail Wholesale webpage in September with the exhortation that the mailers "must treat the image as confidential until 4 November and it should not be included on any of your promotional material or website." (They can be seen on the Commonwealth Blogspot now.)
All the usual details will be shown here - the set, the miniature sheet, and the usual collector sheet - when the Royal Mail publicity machine kicks into action on 28th October.
Royal Mail is uncharacteristically brief in its enthusing about these designs:
Royal Mail is celebrating Christmas 2025 with a set of 5 stamps illustrated by British artist Paula Doherty. These illustrations focus on key characters within the nativity such as Mary, Joseph, shepherds, wise men, the angel and baby Jesus.
Technical Details
The 39 x 30 mm stamps were designed by Hat-trick using illustrations by Paula Doherty and printed in gravure by Cartor Security Printers on self-adhesive paper in sheets of 50. The miniature sheet is 179 x 74 mm.
Booklets
Now we come to the interesting part - the information provided to the Stamp Trade, and on the order form, shows only booklets of 8.
But Royal Mail's web shop, today, also shows booklets of 4 of each value.
Royal Mail have been approached for more details.
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| Digital Stamps used by Royal Mail Direct Mail customers preprinted on seasonal mailshots. |
Collector(s) Sheet
From 2025 the traditional Christmas Collectors Sheet will be reduced to 10 stamps, from 20, in the following formats: 2 x 1st class, 2 x 2nd class, 2 x 1st Class Large Letter, 2 x 2nd Class Large Letter, 2 x £3.40.
The Sheet will be printed in self adhesive and litho, which is different from the main set which is printed in self adhesive and photogravure. The labels here are particularly uninspiring - taking them singly they will mean nothing to anyone. Price is £22.54
Products available
Set of stamps, Miniature Sheet, Collectors Sheet, Retail booklets (apparently 4), Stamp Cards (6), Presentation Pack, First Day Covers (2).
UPDATE 28 October: I've had a report that the sheet stamps were on sale and were used in Ripon yesterday.
I've received the "First" leaflet this morning.
ReplyDeleteYet again the initial reaction is "haven't I seen these before ?"!
RM 'First' for this issue dropped through my letter box 25/10/25. So the design is not secret anymore.
ReplyDeleteMine arrived today. The secret is out!
ReplyDeleteVery uninspiring and look similar to previous Christmas stamps
ReplyDeleteContacted RM this morning. They confirmed Booklets of 4. They have automatically been added to Customers Accounts who have Booklets on there original advice notes.
DeleteVery boring stamps, but that's what we get these days. I even prefer the Monopoly set to this. I wish there were booklets for other "special stamps" as it'll be either Machin/KC3 barcode stamps or these Christmas stamps we will see on cards this year. And our first £3.40 commemorative ... I'm surprised they bothered given two 1st class would do.
ReplyDeleteOn the positive side a £3:40p stamp means that you could send a postcard to a foreigner without having to cram in two of our now-too-large stamps round the address and 'Greetings form Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch'. Handy for parcels too.
DeleteI would have been impressed, if I hadn’t seen the 2022 Christmas issue.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting observation, Ron, which made me look again. The order of stamps follows the chronology of the story as it did in 2022:
Delete2nd Annunciation, 2nd Large Journey to Bethlehem, 1st Holy Family (1st Large showed the Angel in 2022 but there were two airmail stamps so the order continues) penultimate stamp (now 1st Large, then £1.85) Angel and Shepherds, top value stamp(£2.55/£3.40) Magi/Kings. In the top value the design is exactly the same format with the kings facing the star at the top left.
To be fair, there isn't much scope for originality (esp. not for ingenuity) in depicting the Nativity.
DeleteWhat irritates me more is that, whereas the order in which you have listed the stamps is logical both in terms of values and of the Bible story, Royal Mail's arrangement of the stamps (both miniature sheet and FDC, in slightly different ways, if you 'read' left to right, and top to bottom*) have the baby Jesus depicted before his mother has even arrived in Bethlehem!
* The presentation pack order sort of makes sense if you zig-zag between the upper and lower rows.
Again the Nativity, are they the same stamps used again and they look pretty awful, those days of Father Xmas, Snowman and the children on xmas stamps are long gone, or winter animals with snow scenery / setting used in the background would have made an ideal xmas sets.
ReplyDeleteThere is another set coming out towards the end of the month, looking forward to that based around Queen Victoria, hopefully big improvement there.
RM Advice Note, Queen Victoria Set £13.60, £6.80 MS, £25.35 PSB and Booklet of 4x 1st (£6.80) (UB474).
DeleteAnother miniature sheet cover, there seems too many miniature sheet FDC lately, I just wish they do less of them, as some sets don't need them.
DeleteEven the Collectors Sheets get more bland - first Monopoly and now this Christmas one - plain or nearly so. Previous ones did show that some thought had gone into the backgrounds to make a colourful setting. And not even any interesting labels to go with the stamps.
ReplyDelete