Finnish Christmas Maxicards Spread the Holiday Spirit in new ways

On Monday, November 5, Posti issued Christmas stamps with two seasonal themes: Christmas tree and stable lantern. The maxicards shown have these two stamps.

The Christmas Tree stamp comes in a triangular sheet that doubles as an impressive Christmas decoration. Thanks to its special fold, the 20-stamp sheet stands upright like a miniature Christmas tree. Use it to get your desk in the holiday spirit – and to remind you to send your holiday greetings!  

The Stable Lantern stamp creates the peaceful mood of expectation that is the heart of the Christmas season. 

Nina Rintala designed the 2012 Christmas stamp. Nina is a graphic artist from Turku who has previously designed stamps for Itella, including the Church Sleigh Christmas stamp, which was recognized as the most beautiful stamp of 2002. In 2008, Rintala designed the world’s first transparent stamp, Frosty Night, for Itella.

Thank you Ella for these lovely cards.

Merry Christmas

This is the Season for Greetings and Good wishes. Thank you Ella for this pretty card with Museum street, the children near a Christmas tree and The Helsinki Cathedral in the background.

Helsinki Trams

The Helsinki tram network forms part of the Helsinki public transport system organised by Helsinki Regional Transport Authority and operated by Helsinki City Transport in the Finnish capital city of Helsinki. The trams are the main means of transport in the city centre. 54.9 million trips were made in 2009. The Helsinki system is one of the oldest electrified tram networks in the world.

Since 1999, new low-floor trams have been gradually brought into operation, but technical difficulties have slowed this progress. In 2004, Helsinki City Transport bought old eight-axle trams from Germany for relief during this transitional phase.

Thank you very much Ella for this attractive maxicard issued on 26.9.2012. The stamp is the personalized stamp of Helsinki Post Office.

Season's Greetings

Season's Greetings to all, especially to teddy bear lovers.

Camouflaged Volkswagen Beetle

This Grass covered Camouflage Volkswagen Beetle gives a whole new meaning to the term driving green. With VW enthusiasts all around the world, Volkswagens have always been a popular car to modify. This Beetle hasn’t been modified in the normal way it has been turned into a green car. The Beetle has been covered completely in grass and tropical plants. This would be the best camouflage you could get for driving in the forest!

This nice card was sent to me by Jeannette from Holland.

Winter Wonderland

A typical peaceful winter's scene from Santa Claus Land.

Lotus in the Primorye

Thank you Sveta for this pretty card.

Pecan Pie

Elizabeth sent me this nice and tasty recipe on this card. While the card gives you the ingredients, I have the secret of how to go about making this mouth watering dish ;-)) Those who want to know, please contact me by my e-mail.

Incidentaly, Pecan Pie Day is observed in North America on 12^th July.

Now, what is a pecan? The pecan nut is a species of hickory, native to south-central North America, in Mexico from Coahuila south to Jalisco and Veracruz, in the United States from southern Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, and Indiana to Virginia, southwestern Ohio, south through Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee,Kentucky, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Florida, and west into New Mexico.

"Pecan" is from an Algonquian word, meaning a nut requiring a stone to crack.

Titanic

Thank you Nora for this nice card.

Reineke island

Small Reineke island is located in south-west of the Sea of Okhotsk between Shantarsky island and the Sakhalin Island, 5 km to the north of the continent. Administratively it is part of the Nikolaev District of Khabarovsk Territory.

The namesake bay currently covered with ice is located several kilometers to the south of the Reineke island. Both the island and the bay are named after the famous Russian hydrographer, Vice-Admiral Michail Reineke, Director of the Hydrographic Department.

Once more Sveta has sent a pretty picture card portraying the Russian Far-East Maritime Zone or Primorsky Krai. 

Ooops!

Ooops! Did that little fellow really do that!

Museum Ship Pommern

The Pommern, formerly the Mneme (1903–1908), is a windjammer. She is a four-masted barque that was built in 1903 in Glasgow at the J. Reid & Co shipyard.

The Pommern (German for Pomerania) is one of the Flying P-Liners, the famous sailing ships of the German shipping company F. Laeisz. Later she was acquired by Gustaf Erikson of Marriehamn in the Finnish Åland archipelago, and used her to carry grain from the Spencer Gulf area in Australia to harbours in England or Ireland until the start of World War II. After World War Two, she was donated to the town of Mariehamn as a museum ship.

She is now a museum ship belonging to the Åland Maritime Museum and is anchored in western Mariehamn, Åland. A magnificent collection of photographs taken by Ordinary Seaman Peter Karney in 1933 showing dramatic pictures of life on a sailing ship rounding Cape Horn can be found in the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich.

The Pommern has a reputation of being a "lucky ship". She survived both world wars unscathed, has lost only four crew members at sea on her journeys and she has won the Great Grain Races twice, 1930 and 1937. She is one of the most popular landmarks ofÅland and annually visited by thousands of visitors.

Four other Clyde-built tall ships are still afloat. Thank you Kirsimarja for this nice card.

Ukraine - Zaporizhian Sich

Zaporizhian Sich was a historical territory that existed between the 16th and 18th centuries. The center of which was located in the region around today's Kakhovka Reservoir. The region stretches across the lower Dnieper river. At one point the area was a condominium of both the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Russian Empire. Soon after the colonization of Sich by the Russian Empire with South Slavs and Moldavians, the Sich was liquidated. With the liquidation the area became part of the Novorossia.

The Zaporizhian Sich was a socio-political, grassroots organization of Ukrainian Cossacks placed beyond the Dnieper rapid. It is considered that they started from a fortress built on the Khortytsia island in the middle of the Dnieper River in what is now the Zaporizhia region of Ukraine. The term has also been metonymically used as an informal reference to the whole military-administrative organisation of the Zaporizhian Cossack Host.

Thank you Barsal for this pretty card with an important piece of Ukranian history attached to it.

Inge Löök - Grannies Having Fun Bobsleding

Inge Löök (real name Ingeborg Lievonen) is a Finnish artist born in Helsinki in 1951. She was once a professional gardener, but today she is most famous for her Granny postcards which so many postcrossers love and collect. I do too.

When she was a child, Inge lived with her family in a 7-storey building in Helsinki. In the same building lived two older women, Alli and Fifi, who later became the inspiration for the characters in her postcards. She says the women look nearly the same as their real-life models... but they have a lot more fun! Inge's look on life is one of optimism and happiness, and it shows on the pictures she draws. The grannies are always happy and having fun, and their motto is "Time is not money and spending it isn’t a sin". She has drawn over 300 postcards on different topics, and has also illustrated several stamps and children's books. Today she lives in Pernå, a village east of Helsinki.

Thank you Pia for this lovely card. The Grannies could easily bring a smile on the faces of the ‘grumpiest in the world’ - any time! They have on mine ;-))

Vantaa

Minna sent me this interesting card showing, firstly, the Helsinki Airport or Helsinki-Vantaa Airport, and secondly The Finnish Science Centre. These two sites have been pictured inside a fish, the tail of which is pictured on the City's Coat of Arms. Below are a few more details about these two important tourist destinations.

Helsinki Airport or Helsinki-Vantaa Airport is the main international airport of the Helsinki metropolitan region and the whole of Finland. It is located in Vantaa, Finland, about 5 kilometres (3 mi) west of Tikkurila, the centre of Vantaa, and 9.2 NM (17.0 km; 10.6 mi) north of Helsinki city centre. Originally built for the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, the airport served 14,865,871 passengers in 2011 and it is the fourth largest airport in the Nordic countries. It provides jobs for 20,000 people and there are 1,500 companies who operate from this airport.

The airport is operated by Finavia, the state-owned enterprise that operates Finland's airports. Helsinki Airport was chosen as the best airport in the world in the IATA 1999 survey on the topic. In 2006 the global airport customer satisfaction survey AETRA ranked Helsinki Airport one of the best airports worldwide and according to Association of European Airlines 2005 delay rates, Helsinki Airport was the most punctual airport in Europe.

The Finnish Science Centre. Heureka is a unique high-level cultural and educational institution that is among Finland’s most popular leisure time destinations. Its mission is twofold: on the one hand the Science Centre operates in the leisure time market, and on the other hand it performs important educational and public service tasks.

Heureka, the Finnish Science Centre opened to the public on April 28, 1989. Heureka attracts on the average 280 000 visitors a year. Apart from the main exhibition Heureka usually displays two temporary exhibitions. Total exhibition space indoors amounts to 3500 m2. During summer season an outdoor exhibition area, Science Park Galilei, is available. Heureka features also a modern digital planetarium. Heureka is open around the year and it operates fully in three languages: Finnish, Swedish and English. Located in the City of Vantaa next to Tikkurila train station and near the Helsinki-Vantaa airport.

Lion Cape

Another view of the coastal maritime zone in Far Eastern Russia - The Primorski Krai. This cape is called the Lion Cape. A pretty scene indeed. Thank you Sveta.