Christmas Day Cancels. How Scarce?

Here in the U.S., it is virtually impossible to find a stamp cancelled December 25, as that has always been a postal holiday.

Is the same the case in European countries/areas? I realize that Dec. 25 cancels in countries that do not observe Christmas day as a postal holiday would be just as common as any other day.

I picked this one out of a $1 junk box at our local show last year, primarily because of the SON cancel from a British Army Post. It wasn't until weeks later that I noticed it was cancelled on December 25, 1899.

Being that it wasn't canceled in the U.K. but instead in Africa, presumably it's not all that unusual, but I still find it a neat piece.

Hi revenue collector

I know that at the turn of the century from 1899 on, Christmas became a holiday for more and more post office entities but before that, it was not 'too uncommon ' to see Christmas Day cancellations. However, they are harder to get by a long shot compared to cancels on any other day.

What you also have is a nice cancellation from the Boer War and they are always collectoble and the Christmas Day cancellation sure is a bonus.

Chimo

Bujutsu

I have 3 Christmas day U.S. cancels (1857, 1898 and 1917) Try this thread https://goscf.com/t/11442&SearchTerms=christmas

Ran through my stuff and can only find one and that is a "sort of".
It has a December 24 cancel on the stamp but has a back stamp for December 25. And that one dates back to 1884.

Wow, that other thread is interesting. I had never seen a U.S. 20th-century Dec. 25 cancel before.

I'm not sure I'd consider the cancels from Christmas, Florida as being entirely legitimate though, as I'm sure they do (did?) this for publicity.

Here's a US 20th Century cancel from Kyserike, NY from Christmas Day 1937. Unfortunately I only have the cut square. Even so, it's interesting because it is a DPO (discontinued post office) that ceased operation in 1954. Interestingly, that post office was only operating for 50 years (1904-1954):

While these aren't exactly Christmas Day cancels, it does show the NY Post Office was working well into the night on Christmas Eve:

December 24, 1918 at 11:30 PM:



December 24, 1920 at 10:30 PM: