Literacy-friendly Christmas stamps popular as ever

The annual Christmas stamps issued by bpost remain as popular as ever, La Dernière Heure reports. Over the past four years, 153.8 million stamps have been sold – an average of 38.5 million per year. By comparison, a normal stamp issued by bpost sells 7.5 million units. Two models are available: one for national post, depicting, according to bpost, “an imaginary festive season” in the town of Kessenich, in Limburg province; the other, for overseas post, features the Walloon town of Saint-Mard, in Luxembourg province. These seasonal stamp issues support a good cause: for every letter or card sent using a Christmas stamp, bpost gives €0.01 to its literacy fund. The operation was launched in 2008 and has already raised €1.8 million to help literacy.