Christmas Island tradition
Special postmark attracts collectors, locals during holiday season
The holiday season is a busy time of year for post offices across the country, but in Christmas Island, it’s even busier — just ask Hughena MacKinnon.
MacKinnon, the postmaster for Canada Post’s Christmas Island location, has been busy the past couple of weeks preparing for an increase in work.
That’s because Canada Post released its annual Christmas pictorial postmark, highlighting the holiday season.
The annual postmark has been popular with people across the world, many of whom want the special mark on their Christmas cards and parcels.
“It gets really busy once you hit the end of November,” said MacKinnon.
The tradition of the postmark dates back 24 years when MacKinnon’s predecessor, Margaret Rose MacNeil, asked Canada Post to create a postmark named after Christmas Island.
“She wanted to have a special postmark for these people to make it a little extra special for them,” said MacKinnon.
Canada Post agreed to the request, creating a postmark shaped like a wreath, which was well received by the general public.
“It was one of the first pictorial postmarks that Canada Post used, but now a lot of areas have their own special mark for something that is significant in their area,” said MacKinnon.
For her effort in promoting and serving the Gaelic community, MacNeil received the Order of Canada in the 1990s. She died of cancer in 1998.
Today, her legacy continues with this year’s Christmas Island pictorial postmark launched on Nov. 24.
The stamp features the familiar wreath symbol and includes a gingerbread man, a reindeer and a dove, along with the Christmas Island name at the bottom.
MacKinnon said the post office, which employs two people, is 10 times busier during the holiday season because of the postmark.
“We do anywhere from 700 to 1,000 cards a day during our busy days,” she said. “They’re all hand stamped, there’s no machines that things go through here.”
The postmark is available in red and green ink so the mark will jump off a standard red or green envelope. There’s no limit to the number of postmarks someone can request.
The post office receives mail for stamping from people all over the world.
“I have collectors that every year like to get the Christmas Island postmark on something and (then have it) sent back to them from Germany, England and Switzerland, to name a few,” said MacKinnon. “We get cards mailed to us from the United States and all across Canada too.”
MacKinnon said each year the post office mails between 12,000 and 14,000 specially stamped Christmas cards.
“It’s amazing, it’s such a small world at times,” she said. “We’re happy to do it because we enjoy getting to meet people from all over.
“Everybody appreciates the work that we do and there is always lots of thank yous and little thank-you notes — they know it’s busy, everybody doing a little extra work, but there’s lots of thanks for it.”
MacKinnon said there is still time to get the special stamp
on your Christmas cards and packages.
“If you want to get something mailed out around Canada and the United States, you probable have until Dec. 10 to get cards out in time for Christmas,” she said. “Parcels should be a little earlier, anything going overseas you probably would like to get out as soon as possible.”
To add the Christmas Island postmark to a card, address and place the correct postage on the actual greeting card, insert the card into a large envelope and send it to Christmas Island Post Office, 8499 Grand Narrows Highway, Christmas Island, N.S., B1T 1A0.