Alderney and Guernsey celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas with two sets of seven stamps

By Linn’s Staff

Guernsey Post celebrates the 12 Days of Christmas with 14 stamps issued Oct. 30 in two sets of seven, with one set for Alderney and one for Guernsey.

“Whether sent across the globe on a Christmas card or carefully placed in an album, The Twelve Days of Christmas collection not only celebrates the joy of the season but also highlights the enduring power of stamps to tell stories and capture cultural heritage, at a time of year when connection matters most,” Guernsey Post said.

The seven stamps in each set are denominated 64 pence, 69p, 92p, £1.37, £1.47, £1.81 and £1.90. The 64p stamp in each set features a design commemorating the 12 Days of Christmas, and then the remaining 12 stamps show a design from each verse of the carol.

For Alderney, the designs show a partridge in a pear tree (69p), two turtle doves (92p), three French hens (£1.37), four calling birds (£1.47), five gold rings (£1.81) and one of six geese a-laying (£1.90).

The stamps from Guernsey show one example of the subjects in the later verses of the carol: seven swans a-swimming (69p), eight maids a-milking (92p), nine ladies dancing (£1.37), 10 lords a-leaping (£1.47), 11 pipers piping (£1.81) and 12 drummers drumming (£1.90).

According to English Heritage, the charity that manages hundreds of Britain’s historic landmarks, the 12 days of Christmas were originally Roman Catholic feast days celebrated in medieval and Tudor England. “Starting on Christmas Day, there were 12 days of religious celebrations, feasting and entertainments that lasted all the way up to 5 January,” English Heritage said.

Over the past four decades, the PNC Financial Services Group has compiled an annual calculation of the total cost of all the gifts mentioned in the carol. In 2024 (the last year for the data at the time of publication) all the gifts would cost $49,263.47, an increase of 5.4 percent from 2023. If the gifts were to be repeated from day to day, as the song states, the total cost would be $209,272.

The cost could be lower, as there’s some debate over the gift on the fifth day of Christmas. Five golden rings are calculated by PNC to cost $1,245; however, given that the rest of the first seven gifts are birds, many claim that the golden rings could actually refer to ring-necked pheasants. Several breeders online are offering ring-neck pheasant chicks for less than $5 each.

The 12 Days of Christmas stamps were designed by Caroline Veron and printed by Bpost in offset lithography in 12 sheets of 10 (one for each denomination in both Alderney and Guernsey). The stamps measure 40 millimeters by 30mm.

For both Guernsey and Alderney, Guernsey Post also offers a presentation pack including the set of stamps as well as a first-day cover franked with the six stamps.

At the time of publication, Guernsey Post has suspended all postal goods shipments to the United States after changes to U.S. import regulations.

For those outside of the United States, the stamps are available online at www.guernseystamps.com as well as on the WOPA+ Stamps and Coins website at www.wopa-plus.com.

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