the 2009 issue combines traditional and contemporary views of this annual Christian festival. It comprises three traditional stamps depicting nativity scenes designed by Wellington artist Stephen Fuller, and three by members of the next creative generation – the winners of our Design a Stamp school competition, in which schoolchildren nationwide sent us their own perspectives on the theme ‘What do you love about Christmas?’.

The traditional images were originally created in much larger scale, and were hence meticulously reproduced for stamp size. It’s a technique with which he’s now familiar, having designed a number of New Zealand Post stamp issues in the past 10 years. “The importance of colour is to differentiate one stamp from another in the series, the light and shade helps clarity at the small scale,” he says.

To complement the traditional stamps, New Zealand Post has included a fifth colour – gold.

50c Design a Stamp winner
Felix Wang
Age 11
ACG Parnell College
“NZ’s Christmas is summer and I love to sit on a chair, enjoy the view and relax. Also lots of people called the pohutukawa the New Zealand Christmas tree”

$2.30 Design a Stamp winner
Dannielle Aldworth
Age 10
Wellsford School
“I love the NZ pigeon and I gave it a hat for Christmas”

$2.80 Design a Stamp winner
Apurv Bakshi
Age 7
St Andrew’s College
“I love getting presents for Christmas”