Australia Post Christmas Island Stamps 2007

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1 November 2007

Australia Post produces a Christmas Island Christmas stamp issue every second year. The stamps offer a quirky take on Santa Claus and the secular side of Christmas, unlike the Australian stamp issue which is traditionally more religious in nature. This year the Christmas Island stamp issue also includes the first International Post stamp produced for a Christmas Island Christmas issue.

The Christmas Island community is made up of people of diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds. Although Christmas is celebrated on the island as a family festival and as a time of giving, not all community members follow Christian traditions. The Christmas Island Christmas stamps feature Santa coming to Christmas Island with sacks of presents. They are designed to appeal to children and families, celebrating the spirit of Christmas joy, celebration and giving.

The illustrator was briefed to create joyous, whimsical images of Santa going about his business on Christmas Island, with the location indicated by the sun, sand, palm trees, booby birds and red crabs. These stamps give Australia Post an alternative Christmas stamp issue, focusing on fun and family, and include the first International Post stamp produced for a Christmas Island Christmas issue.

The Stamps

45-cent stamp
Santa sails into Christmas Island in a tiny yacht, piled high with presents. Booby birds and gulls fly around him.

90-cent stamp
Santa’s huge pile of presents is lifted up onto the Christmas Island Jetty by crane. Santa stands on top of the presents, riding up with them, hanging onto the crane rope. A red crab dangles from the bottom of the presents.

$1.10 stamp (International)
Santa rests on the beach surrounded by presents and overrun by excited crabs. Palm trees, the jetty and cliffs are in the background.

All illustrations include recognisable Christmas Island settings, and this is the first stamp to feature the familiar Christmas Island Jetty crane.

The illustrator and the designer
Lloyd Foye is the illustrator of the Christmas Island stamps. He is a well-known Sydney-based artist, who creates beautiful and humorous works, often exploring Australian beach culture. The stamps are designed by Sally Piskuric of the Australia Post Design Studio. Sally joined Australia Post in 2006, and her other stamp designs include Historic Shipwrecks (2007) and Queen's Birthday (2006).

Australia Post “50 years of Australian Christmas Stamps” 2007

Australia Post has issued Christmas stamps every year since 1957, with more than 100 individual stamp designs created to send mail throughout Australia and overseas.

This year Australia Post celebrates 50 continuous years of Australian Christmas stamps with the release of commemorative stamp issue. Other countries such as Austria and Cuba did issue stamps with Christmas themes before 1957 but Australia the first country to issue Christmas stamps regularly each year since then..

Australia Post has selected five classic Australian Christmas stamp designs. Each depicts the artistic style, social mood and cultural values of the time. The stamps also invite us to celebrate memories of the past five decades of Christmas stamps.

The Stamps

50c 1957 Christmas – The painting of The Infant Samuel 1776
The first Australian Christmas stamp design was created by Note Printing artist Donald Cameron. During the fifties various religious communities expressed the need for a more public demonstration of spirituality. The Post Master General’s Department responded by issuing a Christmas stamp. At the time it was felt the biblical Christmas story could not be easily visualised as an Australian subject and best represented as a European image. The decision was to use the figure of a small kneeling child from the painting of The Infant Samuel 1776 by the English artist Sir Joshua Reynolds. The subject was in keeping with the more family oriented values of the day.

45c 1977 Christmas – Surfing Santa
As many Australians spend their Christmas holidays relaxing on the nation’s beaches, the image of the ‘Surfing Santa’ stamp seemed to capture this spirit. The Post Master General’s department tested religious opinion with the various religious denominations who did not find it unacceptable as the stamp was initially intended for international mail. The domestic 15c stamp design featured an abstract representation of the Madonna and Child by Jackie O’Brien. Just prior to the issue period, the stamps were changed over and the ‘Surfing Santa’ was unexpectedly issued as the domestic Christmas stamp. A religious radio talk-back cleric felt it was unacceptable and urged public complaint. The large majority of Australians enjoyed the stamp and it is one of Australia post’s most memorable images. The design was relevant to a time in Australian culture that felt confident and more at ease with its identity expressed in secular fun and leisure.

$1.10 1984 Christmas - Stained Glass
The 1984 stamp for the 2007 celebration of Australian Christmas stamps, designed by Ken Cato, is a detail of the Madonna and Child from a very beautiful stained glass window made in 1938 for St.Bartholomew’s Church of England, designed by the artist Mervyn Napier Waller. This stained glass depicts the Madonna in a very contemporary way, experiencing a natural and tender moment with her baby son.

45c 1990 Christmas – Nativity
This stamp was issued at the height of the Bicentennial decade in which Australian historic subjects, flora, fauna and nostalgic Australiana were at the forefront of visual culture. Marg Towt’s design shifts the place of the Nativity from its traditional scene to the Australian bushland and depicts the baby Jesus surrounded by the native koala and kangaroo.

45c 1996 Christmas – Madonna and Child
The 1996 Christmas stamps illustrate three elements of the story of the traditional Christmas celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. The theme of the Virgin Mary and Child has been a strong one during the 1990s. After a period of economic recession in the late eighties and the boom in information technology in the nineties, a sense of both unease and anticipation marked the period moving toward the new millennium. The traditional Christmas story stamps have provided a more familial, emotional and traditional symbol of faith at a time of great change.

The Designer
Melinda Coombes has been a graphic designer for 17 years, establishing the Melbourne-based Coombes Whitechurch Design studio in 2000. She has created several outstanding stamp designs for Australia Post, including 50th Anniversary Royal Visit to Cocos Island (2000), Bon Voyage (2004) and Driving through the Years (2006). For her outstanding work on the latter stamp issue, Melinda received the 2006 Jo Monie Design Award.