Christmas stamps designed by schoolchildren and chosen by Prince Charles will be available to the public from today.
The designs, ‘Santa Claus on his sleigh on a starry night’ by ten-year-old Ted Lewis-Clark, in Frome, Somerset, and ‘Snow family’ by 9-year old Arwen Wilson, from Dudley, West Midlands, were chosen from more than 200,000 entries.
The ‘Santa’ design will appear on the 1st Class Christmas Stamp and ‘Snow family’ will feature on the 2nd Class Christmas stamp.
In addition, to mark their success, a special postmark will feature on mail delivered to addresses nationwide.
‘Santa Claus on his sleigh on a starry night’ by ten-year-old Ted Lewis-Clark, in Frome, Somerset, will feature on first class stamps
Each child will have their name on the postmark for a week in November with the message: ‘Ted Lewis-Clark/Arwen Wilson – Winner of Royal Mail’s Christmas Stamp Design Competition.’
Oakfield Academy pupil Ted and St Chad’s Catholic Primary School students Arwen’s postmarks will feature on mail delivered from 7 November and 14 November, respectively.
Artist, Mary Rouncefield, who was part of the South West Regional judging panel had said Ted’s design was, ‘A clear winner..!’
‘Snow family’ by Arwen Wilson, from Dudley, West Midlands will feature on the 2nd Class Christmas stamp
Geoff Braden from Royal Mail, one of the West Midlands Regional judges said of Arwen’s design: ‘I particularly like the Christmas pudding and the mischievous Snowman with the snowballs.’
Royal Mail Chief Executive Officer, Moya Greene,said: ‘We received a phenomenal response to our Christmas Stamp Design Competition this year with 200,000 entries from children across the UK.
‘HRH The Prince of Wales has selected the two overall winners, and we congratulate Ted and Arwen, whose designs will be featured on millions of stamps this Christmas.
‘I hope all the children who entered the competition continue being creative and artistic.’
Last year’s first class Christmas stamp was a robin red breast
This is only the fourth time in the company’s 500-year history that children have designed Christmas stamps.
As with all Special Stamps issued by Royal Mail, both winning designs were approved by the Queen.
The winners have both won £1,000 in vouchers and £1,000 for their respective schools.
Other Christmas stamps for different postal rates, and a religious-themed issue, will also be available from 7 November 2017.
Last year a robin redbreast and a snowman in a blue scarf were chosen as the first and second class stamps respectively.