Christmas 2020: A Checklist of Stamps & Seals

After years of shunning them, I have come to regard Christmas and other seasonally-themed stamps as one of my favorite annual topicals in recent years. Part of that is probably part of my efforts to get into some sort of holiday spirit, a difficult task living in a predominantly Buddhist (96 percent) and Islamic  (3.6%) country where the average December temperature is in the 80’s. The other part is that I simply like the festive and religious designs, as well as being reminded of Christmases back in the United States while I was growing up.

To my thinking, many of the designs of the Christmas 2020 stamps are a step above any others in recent memory. While some were definitely designed more than one year ago (pre-pandemic), others are more recent creations of artists at least partially influenced by the myriad of “unprecedented” events that have occurred this year. Just as this holiday period has seen an unusual amount of overtly Christmas decorations here in Thailand in an effort to make everyone (Christian or not) feel more festive not to mention boost the local failing economy, the majority of the stamps seem more cheerful overall than previous releases.

This checklist includes links to the articles about the stamps themselves (click on the yellow country names). There are still a few that I haven’t had the time to put together articles but I hope to remedy that within the few days remaining before Christmas (of course, my true deadline could be Epiphany or Eastern Orthodox Christmas in early January). I have also included several Christmas seals (some of the Nordic countries seem to have replaced Christmas stamps with seals in recent years) and several that are not exactly celebrating Christmas itself such those showing Winter scenes from Japan and the United States.  This list does not include any Hanukkah or Kwanzaa stamps; there are, however, a couple of “New Year” stamps (Russia, for example) but no Chinese/Lunar New Year (Year of the Ox) issues. I may do a checklist on those at some point.

A brief reminder here….  I do plan to continue reporting on New Issues in 2021 but will not attempt to cover more than a select few stamp-issuing entities and topicals. To date, I have not posted any articles on stamps to be released in the New Year but will start doing so in the near future (probably sometime during my short holiday from 31 December through 4 January as I am working hard teaching seven days per week and also preparing/rehearsing Christmas plays for two different schools this week!).

Happy Holidays, everyone!

 Åland : released on 23 October 2020

 Åland [Christmas seals] : released on 23 October 2020

 Alderney : released on 28 October 2020

 Andorra, French Administration : released on 06 November 2020

 Andorra, Spanish Administration : released on 05 November 2020

 Argentina : released on 09 December 2020

 Armenia [New Year and Christmas] : released on 29 December 2020

 Australia : released on 30 October 2020

 Austria [Christmas Art] : released on 13 November 2020

 Austria : [Modern Christmas] : released on 20 November 2020 [joint issue with Vatican City]

 Austria [Vintage Christmas] : released on 27 November 2020

 Bahamas : released on 03 December 2020

 Belarus : released on 27 October 2020

 Belgium : released on 26 October 2020

 Belgium [Spéculoos Christmas Cookies] : released on 26 October 2020

 Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatian Administration : released on 01 December 2020

 Brazil : released on 28 October 2020

 Bulgaria : released on 25 November 2020

 Canada [Maud Lewis Folk Art]: released on 02 November 2020

 Canada [Nativity] : released on 02 November 2020

 Chile : released in December 2020

 Christmas Island : released on 30 October 2020

 Colombia : released on 07 December 2020

 Croatia : released on 26 November 2020

 Curaçao : released on 01 December 2020

 Cyprus : released on 19 November 2020

 Czech Republic : released on 21 October 2020

 Denmark [Christmas seals] : released in October 2020

 Estonia : released on 15 October 2020

 Estonia [Christmas Cookies ATM labels] : released on 05 December 2020

 Falkland Islands : released on 20 November 2020

 Faroe Islands [Christmas seals] : released on 02 November 2020

 Finland : released on 04 November 2020

 Germany : released on 02 November 2020

 Gibraltar : released on 02 November 2020

 Gibraltar [ATM labels] : released on 02 November 2020

 Great Britain : released on 03 November 2020

 Greece : released on 23 November 2020

 Greenland : released on 06 November 2020

 Guatemala : released 0n 11 December 2020

 Guernsey : released on 28 October 2020

 Hong Kong : released on 04 December 2020

 Hungary : released on 22 October 2020

 Iceland : released on 29 October 2020

 Ireland : released on 05 November 2020

 Isle of Man : released on 30 October 2020

 Isle of Man [ATM labels] : released on 30 October 2020

 Israel [ATM label] : released on 1 December 2020

 Italy : released on 01 December 2020

 Japan [Winter Greetings] : released on 20 November 2020

 Jersey : released on 23 November 2020

 Latvia : released on 27 November 2020

 Liechtenstein : released on 16 November 2020

 Lithuania : released on 27 November 2020

 Luxembourg : released on 08 December 2020

 Malta : released on 24 November 2020

 Mexico : released on 27 November 2020

 Moldova : released on 22 December 2020

 Monaco : released on 03 November 2020

 Netherlands [December stamps] : released on 16 November 2020

 New Caledonia : released on 04 November 2020

 New Zealand : released on 04 November 2020

 North Macedonia : released on 22 December 2020

 Norway : released on 06 November 2020

 Palestine : released on 06 November 2020

 Paraguay : released on 02 December 2020

 Philippines : released on 23 November 2020

 Poland : released on 16 November 2020

 Romania : released on 12 November 2020

 Russia [Happy New Year!] : released on 03 December 2020

 Saint Helena : released on 01 September 2020

 Saint Pierre and Miquelon : released on 21 November 2020

 San Marino : released on 10 November 2020

 Serbia : released on 15 October 2020

 Sierra Leone [Christmas Paintings] : released on 31 August 2020

 Slovak Republic : released on 13 November 2020

 Slovenia : released on 13 November 2020

 Spain : released on 05 November 2020

 Sri Lanka : released in December 2020

 Sweden : released on 12 November 2020

 Switzerland : released on 12 November 2020

 Switzerland [Pro Juventute] : released on 12 November 2020

 Tokelau : released on 04 November 2020

 United States [Holiday Delights] : released on 24 September 2020

 United States [Winter Scenes] : released on 16 October 2020

 United States [Our Lady of Guapulo] : released on 20 October 2020

 Uruguay : released on 16 December 2020

 Vatican City : released on 10 November 2020 [joint issue with Austria]

 @LenLenSembillo [The 12 Days of Christmas fantasy stamps] : posted on Twitter from 26 December 2020 until 5 January 2021