A Very Merry Xmas – The Story of the First Christmas Stamp

Holiday stamps are extremely common these days. It should be no surprise that Christmas was the first of these but today, we can find stamps for Diwali, Hanukkah, and the Chinese New Year to name a few. But this wasn’t always the case. In honor of the season, let’s take a quick look at the world’s first stamp to mention Christmas. And as it turns out, it’s a Canadian one.

The story of the world’s first Christmas stamp starts in 1885 with the first attempt to bring an “imperial penny postage’ to the floor of the British House of Commons. This idea to try to standardize rates across the British Commonwealth didn’t pass but the seeds were sown. Thirteen years later, at the Imperial Conference in London, England, the subject would be broached again. (One article I came across claimed that this conference was in Washington, DC but this must be a mistake because, why would an imperial conference have been in the US?) This time, it was Canada’s Postmaster General William Mulock who would take up the fight. Despite several Commonwealth countries objecting to the idea with claims such as infringing on sovereignty, many joined in and Mulock went to work designing the imperial penny postage. (Again, other sources name another person with the artwork but I’m going with the consensus here.)

The stamp was issued in 1898 and came with the oceans being either blue or slightly lavender. It was a 2 cent denomination with a Mercator map of the world showing the whole of the British Commonwealth. Canada, of course, is right in the middle. It also has the rather uncomfortable line, “We hold a vaster empire than has been” on the bottom of the stamp. The phrase comes from a poem by Welsh poet Sir William Morris, who wrote “A Song of Empire” for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee (published as the Jubilee Ode in June 1897).

“We hold a vaster Empire than has been!
Nigh half the race of man is subject to our Queen!
Nigh half the wide, wide earth is ours in fee!
And where her rule comes all are free.
And therefore ’tis, O Queen, that we,
Knit fast in bonds of temperate liberty,
Rejoice to-day, and make our solemn Jubilee.”

So, what does a colonialist stamp have to do with Christmas? Well, that’s where things get a little funny. Most of the sources that I came across tell this story. All stamps issued in the British Commonwealth at the time had to be approved by Queen Victoria herself. Once Mulock had his design ready to go, he went to the queen stating that the stamp should be released on November 9th of 1898 to honor the prince. In this case, he was referring to the Prince of Wales however, Queen Victoria didn’t pick up on this and indignantly snapped back with, “What prince?” An embarrassed Mulock had to quickly come up with a new story. He then replied that he had meant the Prince Of Peace. The design was quickly altered and XMAS 1898 was added. The first “Xmas” stamp was officially released on December 7th.

Strangely enough, it would be sometime before Christmas made another appearance on a stamp and again, it’s a bit underwhelming. The British government, in 1935, issued “Christmas stamps” to officers serving in Egypt. Don’t get me wrong, the actual 1934 stamp itself is awesome but the Xmas 1935 – 3 Milliemes overstamp is pretty sad. (I’d still love one in my collection though!)

After that, the odd country started to release Christmas issues here and there but it was still time to gain ground. Canada’s next Christmas stamp didn’t come until October 14, 1964. What a time to wait! On the bright side for you purists out there, at least it didn’t say “Xmas” on it.