TWO DATES TO REMEMBER FOR SENDING CHRISTMAS WISHES OVERSEAS

Royal Mail has two dates for customers to remember when sending festive greetings overseas this Christmas.

Latest recommended international posting dates for cards and letters are Saturday, December 6 for addresses outside Europe and Saturday, December 13 for Europe. These two dates have been introduced to help customers and replace the system used in previous years which gave last posting dates for individual countries.

Royal Mail Marketing Manager Mike Hilder said:

"These two specific dates are being used this year because we wanted to make things as easy as possible for our customers. Some customers felt the list of last international posting dates for individual countries issued last year was too long. Royal Mail has responded and now our customers with friends, family and business contacts overseas need only check the date for either Europe or the rest of the world."

But he added: "With an estimated post bag of more than two billion cards and letters this Christmas for posting nationally and internationally, the message as always is to post early and please remember to use the full address."

This year's Christmas stamps (whose theme is Christmas crackers) are the perfect addition to any Christmas greeting and are now on sale.

One of the easiest ways to send festive wishes around the world is Royal Mail's Christmas aerogramme. Complementing the Christmas stamps, it features designs by the Tom Smith company. Tom Smith invented the Christmas cracker 150 years ago.

The aerogrammes-all-in-one envelopes and note paper with pre-paid postage - are now available in 19,200 post offices nationwide. They will carry Christmas wishes anywhere in the world for just 45p.

Notes to Editors

Details of last surface mail posting dates are available from post offices nationwide.

SOURCE The Post Office