Don’t you love getting good mail? I do. I have an old friend who writes hundreds of letters a year, and I always feel special when I’m a recipient. Look at this envelope and it’s easy to see why:
No addresses—had to block those out! But they sure look good in real life.
He addresses everything with a beautiful pen in his immaculate handwriting and adds flourishes wherever he can. As much as I love that, my favorite part might be the stamp assortment. It’s like each envelope is a miniature art gallery.
For a few years I’ve wanted to gussy up some envelopes for my Christmas cards, and I decided this is the year to do it. So I made a trip to the post office to ask for more information about how stamps like this work, and here’s the skinny.
>> First, stamps don’t expire. If you run across antique or vintage unused stamps, feel free to lick and stick—they’ll count towards the cost of mailing your cards.
>> If you have old stamps that have already been mailed, you can glue those on too as a decoration, but beware: If the post office sees stamps that have been cancelled, they might assume ALL the stamps have been used and dump the card in the “return to sender” bin. Still, I’m considering this option as I have quite a few used stamps that are so cute but doing me no good sitting in a drawer.
>> You can buy unused vintage stamps on Etsy. Here are sampling of some available now:
I just ordered a bunch and can’t wait to use them. I’ll post photos soon.
Tell me, how do you do Christmas cards? Do you write an annual letter? Do you send them as postcards to save on postage and envelopes (I did for 10 years!)? Do you send a bunch or just a few? And when do you mail them? •
Boulevard West 
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