Postcrossing Blog

The balloons are slowly deflating now, and we’ve swept the confetti off the floor… but what a party World Postcard Day was! 🥰 Every year, we think things can’t possibly go any better, and every year the community proves us wrong. Now that the postcards sent on October 1st are starting to make their way around the globe, it’s time for a little recap of all the fun and magic.

The forum topic was buzzing with excitement from the very first time zone to the last. As midnight rolled across the world, celebrations began popping up like a beautiful stadium wave — from Asia to the Americas, one after another! Postcrossers shared photos, stories, and stacks of postcards ready to fly off to new destinations. The energy was infectious, and it even spilled over onto social media, where #WorldPostcardDay was full of smiling faces, mailboxes, and beautiful cards.

Over in the Postcard Lounge, things were just as lively: 410 of you joined us throughout the day to write postcards with some company! At one point, over 40 people were online simultaneously, quietly writing postcards together. We saw participants from Chile to New Zealand, and a few even recognized familiar names of people they’d once exchanged postcards with. It turned into a wonderfully long, cozy session of shared scribbling and postcard showing. A big thank you to everyone who volunteered to help host it — we’ll definitely have to do it again!

Meanwhile, 163 meetups took place all over the world, bringing postcard friends together in real life. Many meetups also happened via Geocaching, and a handful of libraries joined as well!

The official World Postcard Day design was everywhere, printed by postcrossers individually or in huge group orders. What a joy to see it travel! And we also saw many other postcards celebrating the day, including these beautiful handmade postcards that kara_ann's mom, Kris, sewed just for the occasion!

Also 2025 was the year in which we broke all records: over 117,000 postcards were sent on October 1st across all time zones! 😱 It’s a bit mind-boggling and, for us who have to manage the system — and a bit worrying too, as Postcrossing wasn’t built for such huge peaks of activity as there’s a limited amount of addresses that can be select at any given time. We’ll need to brainstorm some solutions for next year, which will (sadly) likely include lowering the limits on the day… but for now, we’re just amazed and grateful for everyone’s enthusiasm.

And speaking of gratitude, today is World Post Day — which marks the anniversary of the founding of the Universal Postal Union back in 1874. This year’s theme, “#PostForPeople: Local Service. Global Reach.”, celebrates postal services as a vital public service rooted in communities and driven by people. From rural villages to bustling cities, the postal infrastructure everywhere keeps us connected — often serving as a bridge to the wider world, and sometimes even to the digital one. We’re proud that postcards are a small but meaningful part of that mission, helping build connections that go beyond borders and bring a bit of happiness into the world. So here’s to postal workers everywhere (and to all of you!) for keeping this beautiful network alive, one postcard at a time!