Royal Mail reveals its Christmas 2017 stamps
- Published
For more than 50 years, Royal Mail has released special stamps to mark anniversaries and celebrate events in UK life. Christmas is one of the occasions that is marked with a special collection of festive stamps. But this Christmas, two stamps are extra special...
Two children won a competition to have their very own designs featured in the collection. There were over 200,000 entries to the competition, which asked children to come up with a stamp around 'What does the Christmas season mean to you?'. This one featuring Father Christmas and his sleigh was designed by 10-year-old Ted and will feature on a first-class stamp. Nice work Ted!
The second winner was nine-year-old Arwen's design of a 'Snow Family', which you will be able to see on one of the second-class stamps. It is only the fourth time in Royal Mail’s 500-year history that children have designed the Christmas Stamps, so it's pretty exciting.
The two lucky winners were presented with a framed copy of their stamps by HRH The Prince of Wales, who judged the competition. "Prince Charles was very kind when he spoke to me and gave me a framed copy of my stamp design. It was a great day and I am so happy my stamp design won," said Arwen.
But it's not just these two designs that will feature in this year's Christmas collection. There are six more designs, all of which feature Madonna and child (like the stamp at the very top of this page too). These six stamps focus on the religious aspect of Christmas.
There are many pieces of artwork featuring Madonna and Child. These are depictions of the Virgin Mary and her baby Jesus. According to the National Gallery of Art in Washington in America, images of Madonna and Child are "among the most beloved in Christian art".
The name Madonna is Italian for 'my lady' and is given to the Virgin Mary as a mark of respect and to show how important she is.
There have been many different pieces of artwork featuring Madonna and Child across hundreds of years, but the one thing that all of these images have in common is that the mother and child are the most important figures.
Given how central these characters are to the Christmas story, it seems only fitting that they should feature in the collection. This year's festive stamps will be on sale from 7 November to give your mail that Christmassy touch!
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