Christmas is fast approaching; Guernsey is glistening with festive decorations, bustling with shoppers in search of that perfect gift and the first flurry of Christmas cards are hitting the post.

And to make Guernsey Christmas cards stand out from the crowd we have something very special embellishing our envelopes this season – a collection of Winter Wonderland stamps.

Earlier in the year Guernsey Post ran a photography competition to capture a local winter wonderland scene. With the winning images being depicted on the Guernsey Christmas stamp issue. The response was fantastic, with a beautiful image of a snowy L’Ancresse Common by Nigel Byrom winning first prize.

Six runners up were also chosen and used on the stamps in the Winter Wonderland Christmas collection.  The runners up were: ‘the smallest parish church’ by John Shakerley, ‘Guernsey cow’ by Sarah Plumley, ‘a rooftop view of St Peter Port’ by Karen Millard, ‘La Coupée in Sark’ by Sue Daly, ‘Snow covered St Peters church’ by Jason Bishop and ‘West Coast’ by Eric Ferbrache.

We spoke to Dawn Gallienne, Head of Philatelic, about the highly collectable Guernsey stamps,  the beautiful Winter Wonderland collection and the Royal approval…

Can you tell us about the Guernsey Christmas stamp competition?
It is the first time that we have run a photo competition for stamps and we were pleased to have so many entries, although this made it difficult to narrow them down to the final 7!

Both amateurs and professionals were invited to submit photographs that depicted a winter wonderland scene, and our judging panel consisted of myself, Karl Taylor internationally renowned photographer and Al Mitchell, Creative Director of The Potting Shed, who actually turned the images into stamps. We had to ensure the images would work at stamp size, and we would have enough space to include the Royal Cipher, the stamp value etc. We provided guidelines for entrants to use to help them in this respect. And of course the images also had to have been taken on the island. We are delighted with the final set – and it is great to see so many photographers making the most of the snowy weather!

Do you have a favourite Guernsey stamp?
It’s almost impossible to pick just one! I always love the stamps I am currently working on but I do really like our most recent set of British F1 World Champions stamps and I particularly love this year’s Alderney Christmas stamps.

Is there a particular popular collection?

Our Endangered Species series is popular and has been running for several years. Birds, butterflies and ships are also very strong collector themes.

When do the stamp collections get planned and how are they decided upon?
We usually work around a year in advance, sometimes longer. We research upcoming anniversaries and events that may be appropriate to include in the stamp programme. We also review any suggestions we have been sent by members of the public as well.

How do you go about putting the collection together, is it hard to decide what to include and what not?
It is difficult because we can’t include everything unfortunately. We have to ensure that we have a balance of local themes that will appeal to our worldwide customer base, as well as covering events that that may be more commercial in nature such as last year’s the 150th Anniversary of JM Barrie for Alderney, which featured wonderful illustrations of Peter Pan. These were very popular with our collectors.

What’s special about Guernsey stamps?
We have a long standing reputation in the philatelic industry for producing high quality stamps with fantastic designs. This is what makes our stamps so popular. We are very proud of this reputation and work hard to maintain it. The designers we work with are always thrilled when they realise that all of our stamps are personally approved by Her Majesty The Queen and we cannot print them until we have received this approval.

Finally, can you tell us what you love about Guernsey?
There are 3 things I particularly love about Guernsey – the incredible views, the fabulous food and the people. It is a jewel of a place and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.

Have you captured a festive picture of Guernsey? Come and share it on the VisitGuernsey Facebook page!