Christmas Island Postmark

Reporter Laura Jean Grant writes on the Cape Breton Post website, "The holiday crunch is on at Canada Post locations across the country, and perhaps no post office feels it more keenly than in the rural Cape Breton community of Christmas Island. There, thousands of letters and packages are sent each Christmas season by people looking to have their holiday mail stamped with the distinctive and festive Christmas Island postmark."

Christmas Island postmistress Hughena MacKinnon is quoted in the piece as saying, "“They come from all over Canada, we get them from the States, we get them from several countries around the world. A lot of stamp collectors and that, like to get the postmark for Christmas. We usually do in the vicinity of 10,000 Christmas cards per season hand-stamped with our postmark, and that’s just the cards alone, not packages and parcels and everything else. Usually, our busiest day, we do about 1,000 per day, when (Christmas) gets close in December.”

To get the Christmas Island postmark on your mail, send your addressed cards with proper postage in a larger envelope to Christmas Island Post Office, Grand Narrow Highway, Christmas Island, N.S., B1T 1A0.
 
Located in Nova Scotia, Christmas Island got its name because of a native that lived there whose surname was Christmas according to an entry on Wikipedia.
 
Shown above, Postmistress Hughena MacKinnon puts the Christmas Island postmark on Christmas cards.

To read the entire article, click here.