Postcrossing Blog

Thank you everyone for your comments on Postcrossing’s anniversary post — your kindness and thoughtful words were the highlight of our day!

Quite a few meetups took place all around the world on Postcrossing’s birthday last weekend, and we were so emotional watching all the videos and photos, we decided to share some with you.

In Tofte and Filtvet (two small coastal towns along the Oslo fjord in Norway), a large meetup took place that included participants from all over Europe. Together, they’ve wished Postcrossing a good anniversary by singing the “Happy Birthday” song in their own languages… what a nice idea! We cannot stop smiling when we watch this video. I hadn’t even realized that the song had a different tune in some languages, and was delighted to discover that it sounds just as festive in Greek or Norwegian!

In Portugal, a birthday meetup in July has already become a tradition. This year’s meeting took place in Setúbal (a town famous for its dolphins) and it featured a cute birthday cake. Gracinha, one of the participants, had just celebrated her own birthday last week, so the participants also included her name on the cake, and sneakily prepared a big card and gifts to offer her during the meetup. She loved the surprise!

Isn’t that just wonderful?

Across the world in Indonesia, the Postcrossing community came together to organize a postcard exhibition and meeting at the Plaza Semanggi mall in Jakarta. Looks like a good time was had by everyone at the event which stretched for several days and included live music and even a doodling workshop! You can see tons of more photos on their Instagram page.

Hurray! People coming together and making new friends could not be more in the spirit of this project, so we’re delighted to see so many happy faces on these photos and videos. 😍 If you’d like to participate in one in the future, don’t forget to check the Postcrossing meetups calendar now and then, to keep updated on new events taking place in your area.

Hurray! 🎉 It’s Postcrossing’s 13th anniversary!

Thirteen years ago today was the start of this great adventure that keeps connecting the world through postcards. It’s been a great ride so far, not without its ups and downs, but always a fulfilling and learning experience. On this special day, we’d like to say thank you to all of you out there who still take pleasure in sending postcards to strangers, trusting that this small gesture will make their days a little better. Thank you for believing in this idea, and for coming along for the ride — we wouldn’t have made it without you!

Sometime ago we went back to Braga and took a photo of the balcony where everything started, in a student’s house next to the university. Paulo points it out:

It’s still there, now housing different students and being witness to their adventures. May theirs be as grand as this one has been so far! 😊

Twelve years ago today, Postcrossing was opened to the whole world… so today it’s our own Postcrossingversary! 🎉 Hurray!

Connecting the world might not be an easy job, but we firmly believe it is an evermore important one. We’re thankful to every single one of our members who believe in this idea too, looking beyond borders, religions and politics to simply connect with other human beings out there, one postcard at a time.

And to make this special day even more special, we have great news! Indonesia Post is releasing 3 new Postcrossing-themed stamps today! Here they are, in all their colourful glory:

Pretty cool, right? Meetups are being organised around Indonesia to celebrate the event this weekend — if you’re the area, head over to the forum for more information. We look forward to seeing these pretty stamps on postcards from Indonesia!

And now, it’s time to enjoy this milestone — do join us in this celebration, send a postcard (or 12!) and have a slice of cake! 🎂 Happy birthday Postcrossingversary, Postcrossing!

Hurray! July 14th is Postcrossing’s anniversary and we couldn’t be happier! Eleven years of connecting the world, one postcard at a time… feels great!

Postcrossing is not just a platform or a bit of code on a server. What makes this project great is definitely its community… which means YOU! Every single one of you, that perhaps looked at this idea with suspicion in the beginning but decided to jump in anyway and give it a go. All of you who ensure the world’s mailboxes are filled with smiles and kind words. Those of you who help each other in the forum, who organize and attend meetups, who send us tips and ideas, who send thousands of postcards to lovely ladies on their birthday. We’re thankful for your trust, support and enthusiasm in the past 11 years. Long live Postcrossing!

A couple of postal operators neatly lined up their Postcrossing-themed stamp launches to mark the occasion, so today, Poland and Guernsey see new stamps come to life!

Polish Post drew inspiration on the theme of traveling through postcards, and re-imagined a “postcrossers’ suitcase”… which naturally has a mailbox on the side!

To celebrate the stamp launch, Polish Post is holding several events in Wrocław. Among the activities, there will be a free tour of the Post and Telecommunication Museum in Wrocław, a competition with some prizes and, of course, the opportunity to buy the new stamp and even receive a special cancellation mark.

Today is also the day two new stamps from Guernsey Post make their debut! International postage is being updated, and the stamps (for Europe and Rest of the World) reflect this change. Guernsey Post’s new stamps were drawn by Sue Hamon and aim to share the island’s rich flora and fauna with the world through the postcards they’ll be traveling in.

Guernsey Post is also launching a set of related products along with the stamp, on their online shop, including first day covers and maxicards.

So, happy birthday Postcrossing! Now it’s time to blow those candles and grab a piece of cake while we write some postcards — do join us! :)

PS – Speaking of stamps, the German Postcrossing community has been trying for years to convince their Finance Ministry that a Postcrossing-themed stamp would be a good idea… with little success so far. As Germany is the country with most postcards sent in the project, we think they deserve it. So if you have an extra card, give them a hand in turning this dream into reality!

We promised to show you some highlights from our birthday party map entries, but picking just a few turned out to be a monumental task, leading to long stretches of ooooh’ing and aaaah’ing in the middle of hours of browsing. We loved so many of them, you guys really went out of your way!

Below are some that have drawn our attention. You can click on each image to be taken to the respective entry on the map.

A lot of meetups took place around the birthday, like these ones in Indonesia and France:

And a lot of cooking and baking as well! Our mouths watered with all the commemorative cakes, cookies and sandwiches…

Schools doing Postcrossing will always have a special place in our hearts, so we enjoyed browsing all the class photos and videos!

Some of you decided to use your crafty skills to create Postcrossing-themed objects and displays… such talent and imagination!

Many of you also included your little ones in the celebrations…

… or your pets…

… or even the postman! :)

Such heartfelt displays of love and affection really touched us… We hope we will all still be around in 10 years time, sending postcards and showering each others mailboxes with love!