World Postcard Day is a little less than one month away, so it’s time for the traditional “let’s get ready!” post!
Every year, we get lots of questions about the day, the badge, the postcards, the limits, the events… So this year we tried to put all those questions (and answers) together in one place, so that everyone can be prepared. Please have a look, and if you have other questions that have not been answered, leave them in the comments!
When is World Postcard Day?
World Postcard Day is celebrated every year on October 1st.
This is the anniversary of the first postcard ever sent, and we celebrate it in the best possible way: by sending postcards!
What should I do on that day?
Send postcards! 😍
You can send official Postcrossing postcards through the website, but you can (and should!) also send postcards to other people in your life that could use a smile in their mailbox.
World Postcard Day goes beyond Postcrossing: it’s a day for everyone who enjoys postcards, stamps, mailboxes and handwritten messages.
What happens on Postcrossing?
On October 1st, if you request and send at least one postcard through the Postcrossing website, you’ll receive the World Postcard Day badge on your profile once that postcard is registered.
If you already have the badge from previous years, the number on it will grow by one.
So, for example, if this is your third year participating, your badge will eventually show a 3.
Does the postcard need to be requested on October 1st, or just mailed that day?
For the Postcrossing badge, what matters is that the postcard is requested through Postcrossing on your October 1st.
You can mail that postcard in the next few days, or as soon as possible. The postmark does not need to say “October 1st” for it to count.
What about timezones?
The Postcrossing website shows dates in UTC, which can sometimes make things look a little confusing.
To make sure no one misses out because of timezones, postcards requested on October 1st in your own timezone count. So even if the date shown on the website looks like September 30th or October 2nd because of UTC, don’t worry: if it was October 1st where you are when you requested the address, it counts.
How do I know if my postcard counts?
Eligible postcards will have a little World Postcard Day marker next to their Postcard ID on your Traveling Postcards page.
If it’s there, that postcard counts for the badge once it is registered.
How many postcards can I send through Postcrossing on World Postcard Day?
This year, each member can send up to 5 postcards on October 1st.
There is a limit because World Postcard Day is a very busy day for Postcrossing. Lots of people come to the website at the same time wanting addresses, and the pool of available recipients is not infinite. If too many postcards are requested at once, we risk running out of good matches and the matching system starts having a very stressful day. Paulo also starts having a very stressful day. Please think of Paulo. 😅
Do I get extra slots on October 1st?
No — World Postcard Day does not give anyone extra slots.
The limit is the maximum number of postcards you can send that day, if you have enough available slots.
For example:
- If you have 1 available slot, you can send 1 postcard.
- If you have 3 available slots, you can send 3 postcards.
- If you have 5 or more available slots, you can send up to 5 postcards.
So, if the badge is important to you, it’s a good idea to save at least one empty slot for October 1st, so that you can request a postcard on that day.
Do I need to send all 5 postcards?
No! You only need to send one official Postcrossing postcard on October 1st to receive the badge once it is registered.
Sending more is fun, but not required.
How can I celebrate if I don’t have empty slots to send postcards through Postcrossing?
You can celebrate by sending postcards to friends, family, neighbours, teachers, librarians, local firefighters, nursing homes, schools, someone who helped you recently, or anyone else who deserves one! You can also organize events and bring people together!
What postcard should I use?
Any postcard you like!
We provide an official World Postcard Day design every year, so you can download this year’s postcard and then print it locally or through an online printing service.
But you don’t have to use the official design! Handmade cards, other World Postcard Day designs, postcards from your stash, tourist cards, art cards, funny cards… they all count. Any postcard is a World Postcard Day postcard if you send it on October 1st.
Can I make my own World Postcard Day postcard?
Yes! Many postcrossers make their own World Postcard Day postcards, and we love seeing them.
You don’t need approval from Postcrossing to create your own card, as long as it is clearly your own design and doesn’t pretend to be the official postcard.
Please don’t edit, recolour, remix or distribute altered versions of the official artwork. The official files are shared freely for everyone to use as provided.
If you’d like to use the World Postcard Day logo on your postcard, please respect its license.
Do I have to celebrate alone?
Not at all!
There are lots of meetups and events being organized around the world. You can find them on the World Postcard Day events page.
And if nothing is happening near you, you can organize something small yourself — even meeting one friend for coffee and writing cards together counts as a celebration!
We’ll also have the online Postcard Lounge open again, so you can join other postcrossers around the world while writing your cards from home.
How does the Postcard Lounge work?
The Postcard Lounge is an online space where the community can quietly write postcards together. Everyone joins on a video call but stays muted, providing a shared little window into desks, postcards, pens, stamps, and people writing mail in different corners of the planet.
On October 1st, the lounge will be open again, so you can join others there for some shared postcard writing.
Can World Postcard Day events happen on another date?
October 1st is the official day, and that’s the date that counts for the Postcrossing badge.
But events can happen around that date too, especially if a library, museum, school, postal operator or group that is meeting needs to choose a nearby weekend or another practical day. The goal is to celebrate postcards and help more people discover them.
Are there special postmarks?
Yes! Some postal operators and postcrossers organize special postmarks for World Postcard Day. These vary from country to country, and they get listed on the events page, when we know about them.
If you know of a special postmark, postal event or postcard activity that isn’t listed there yet, please let us know!
Should I write something special on the card?
Anything you want to write is perfect! If you want to, you can use the opportunity to mention that you’re writing the postcard on World Postcard Day, to spread the word about this celebration! 😉
Can I share photos?
Yes, please! We love seeing your postcards, writing tables, meetups, stacks of stamps, library displays, colouring activities and happy mailboxes.
You can share photos on the forum, on social media, or wherever you usually post things. Use the hashtag #WorldPostcardDay so others can find them too.
What should I eat?
The official World Postcard Day menu is “things that look like postage stamps”!
For the main course, we recommend ravioli. For dessert, stamp-shaped cookies. 😋
So… everyone ready for the big day?
Make sure you have postcards, stamps, pens and at least one available slot if you want the badge. Then, on October 1st, request an address, write some postcards, and send a paper bridge into the world.
We can’t wait to celebrate the postcardiest day of the year with you! 😍
79 comments so far
Planning to take October 2nd off work so I can stay up much later in the lounge this time, haha
Spending my first WPD in travel mode this year, excited to see where my 5 postcards will go!
Excited for the WPD 2026! Am readying my postcards and postage stamps.
Let's together gather to get a WPD badge on Oct 1st via a paper bridge this year.
We have a special postal stamp this year in Serbia on the World Postcard Day! But still have no idea how it will look like :)
Hello! I’ll certainly be taking part in World Postcard Day, but I won’t be using the official postcard: it’s far too dull—not to say ugly... :-(
I'm still looking for a way to print the cards. Maybe I can do it via the repro department at work. I'm definitely participating.
I love you guys! Cheers.
I'm looking forward to this day ❤️🔥📪
I ordered 10 World Postcard Day postcards, so now the limit this year is just 5, I have enough stash for next year too! 😉
I'm waiting for this spécial Day !!!
One year goes by so fast.
Great information - this will be a fun WPD!
World Postcard Day 2026 - I am ready!
Very helpful!
Given how many cards never arrive at their destination/do not get registered, I recommend people use all their available slots (up to five obviously) to maximize the chances of getting the badge.
Fortunately, I’d anticipated that the limit for this year’s WPD would be capped at five postcards 😅. It would have been nice, though, if this had been announced when the ‘official’ WPD postcard was released.
As always, looking forward!🌅🌃🏙️🏞️🌆🌉🌄🎆
I am new to Postcrossing, so October 1st will be my first World Postcard Day. QUESTION: Is it okay to send WPD postcards to those folks whom I have already sent a postcard (via the website's "send a postcard" selection, since their addresses would be accessible to me) ???
I’ve been on postcard break for a few months but itching to start up again. It’ll be nice to get back on the horse and celebrate WPD with everyone!
I got world postcard day approved off from work
Thank you for the update, Meiadeleite. I can't wait....
Yayyyy can't wait! The postcard design and our postmark is so beautiful! A hearty thank you to Oce!
I'm a new Postcrossing user, so October 1st will be my first World Postcard Day. I hope to have free slots for the event. I'm curious.
I’m already looking forward to it! Thanks for the update 🫶
I am so very excited and can't wait!
Thank you, Ana and Paulo, for organizing all of it.
It's always such a great event and so much fun to share the joy for postcards!
I already told my boss that I neeeeed to be off that day.
It's a holiday, isn't it?! 😍
So yes, I am ready... I just need to get ravioli and cookies. 😃👍🏼
I’m ready!
I have time off on October 1st because I’ll be at a meeting in Belgium; I’m looking forward to it.
I'm really looking forward to my first WPD. I'm curious to see where my cards go.
I will be celebrating for the first time. And I will definitely send cards. I hope I will receive them too ))
I am ready to send my postcard!!!! My first time!!!
This is my third time participating in this wonderful Postcard Day. I already know which cards I want to send. I'm looking forward to this day, October 1st!
I will be participating as I have in years past, but I won't be stressing over it or doing anything crazy. Just sending postcards as usual. :)
I’m ready!!
My first World Postcard Day! Very excited. :)
I've already got the postcards I'm going to send, and I even did the math to make sure I can send all four of them
Ordered special WPD postcards today ! 😀
So i'm joining in again !
yay, I already started sending out the official postcards as I had printed 50...I will keep 5 slots open, and also send one to each of my family members and pen pals, then keep sending them until they are used up, except the one I am keeping for my collection. I really love the design this year.
I am ready to send my postcard!!!! My first time!!!
This is going to be my first one. 🥳 Happy Postcrossing! 📮🥰
Looking forward to it, I already saved some slots to be sure! 🥳
This will be my first World Postcard Day and I am so very excited to participate! Yay! This is so much fun you guys 🤩🤩🤩
It is really great that you put such a FAQ together! There are so often people who are sad, if they didn’t Safe Slots, but this year it is early enough to get the Information! Thank You for that! And I am so glad, that there is the postcard Lounge again ( I missed it at Postcrossing‘s Birthday)
I'm always excited for WPD 🎉🎊
hope my account will be reopened on time, after suspended since August
😌😔
yes I am ready!! The cards are already on printing🐣
I need to remember to keep 1 slot free …
I'm so excited too! I squealed when I saw the postcards I ordered from a local artist were being delivered soon :) The hard part is knowing when to hold back on sending out cards to have some remaining slots for Oct 1st-Ha!
Love reading all the "it's my first WPD" comments! Time flies when you're having fun (and I'm so ready for my 7th WPD badge!).
I cannot wait, just waiting for my WPD postcards and stamps. My washi tapes are ready.
Can someone from Admin tell me why we have gone from 10 pc's allotted last year to 5 this year? I for one promote Postcrossing whenever I can. I know many members look forward to this time, and send something special, like very old postcards, bookmarks etc. I will start sending out my specially printed WPD cards, so I celebrate the day over a couple of weeks. I have five 1900's Aust postmarked that I will keep for Oct 1.
I'm so excited to write my 5 cards in the Lounge again - I love when we can all write cards together on our holiday!!!
We just had one 😭 how come it's this time of the year again :O
I just received a world post card day 2026 post card--made my day.
Hi Everyone! This will be my first WPD and I am looking forward to sending cards. Marked on my calendar.📬
Count me in! Thanks for the FAQs, too!
It is the first time I will send the world postcard day. I wish to participate in one meeting up to celebrate the event. Unfortunately, there is no any meeting up in my country or neabouring countries.
Another Postcrosser, and friend, sent me a BOX of postcards. I think I'll wrap sets of 10 cards together and put in my free little library encouraging people to send a postcard on World Postcard Day!! ♥️
I'm looking forward to WPD!
This my 2nd year in Postcrossing but missed last years event. I'm excited to join this year. I have saved my 5 spots to send today. Happy post carding everyone.
Born ready and excited for the WPD 2026!
Can't wait 😍
My first WPD
It'll be my first World Postcard Day and I'm looking so forward to it! I'm almost one year into this wonderful hobby and I can't believe how much I'm already into the community! I really recommend the forum to everyone <3
Ready!
World Postcard Day! 💌🌍✨
A day that celebrates everything I love about postcards: the joy of sending, the excitement of receiving, and the beautiful connections they create across the world. Every postcard carries a little piece of someone’s life, culture and story. I’m so happy to be part of this wonderful Postcrossing community 📮🦉❤️
Danacards offers a great WPD Postcard 😃
I've decided to set my account to inactive a few days beforehand and reactivate it on WPD so that my address can be shared more often. Maybe if more people do this, it'll help ensure that more addresses are available????
Already!
I've just printed the brilliant paper bridge image off, looks lovely in the flesh - thank for the time and energy that it took to create 🙏💫
It's already time for a WPD.
So soon a year went by , excited to get the cards printed and send across the 🌍
Can't wait but How to print them out😭
This will be my first time participating in this event (World Postcard Day), and I'm very excited!
It will be my first official day sending out postcards through Postcrossing on world postcard day!!!!
Don’t forget to keep an eye out, you’ll receive a batch for doing so on this special date! 😊 This is also my very first time creating my own postcard. I know it may not be everyone’s cup of tea since I used AI to help create it, but I truly put so much time and effort into it. For months, I kept asking ChatGPT to help me add all the little details and elements I wanted until it finally became the card I had imagined. I hope that, despite being AI-created, it can still bring a little joy, surprise, and happiness to some of my Postcrossing pals.
Postcards printed
Stamps orderd & already arrived
5 slots free - yes!
Conclusion: I am ready for WPD once again.
I'm readyyyy!!
Excited... keeping all my 5 addresses free for the WPD! And am equally excited to receive 5 WPD cards too.
Happy postcrossing, everyone!
Postcards and ravioli !! Perfect night .
It is very sad that you are only allowed to send 5 postcards this year...
"If you’d like to receive the World Postcard Day badge, you’ll need to request and send at least one official Postcrossing postcard on October 1st. " Do I need to make this request in some particular way or just select 'Send' on Oct 1st?
Thanks
I can't wait! This is my first World Postcard Day and I look forward to celebrating!
I will celebrate World Postcard Day for the first time, can't wait! :)
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