Рождественские печати: История благотворительной традиции

Labels (not stamps) placed on mail during Christmas

Christmas seals are adhesive labels that are similar in appearance to postage stamps that are sold then affixed to mail during the Christmas season to raise funds and awareness for charitable programs. Christmas seals have become particularly associated with lung diseases such as tuberculosis, and with child welfare in general. They were first issued in Denmark beginning in 1904, with Sweden and Iceland following with issues that same year. Thereafter the use of Christmas seals proved to be popular and spread quickly around the world, with 130 countries producing their own issues. Christmas Seals were sometimes mistaken for Christmas stamps used for postage, prompting the US Post Office to adopt a policy requiring seals to be affixed on the reverse side of a postcard or envelope, but the policy was generally unfavorable and often ignored, ultimately resulting in its withdrawal. Christmas seals exist in several varieties, most notably those first issued by the Red Cross and later by the National Tuberculosis Association with its red double barred cross on the face of the seal. Other charitable seals have been issued by state governments, religions and social organizations worldwide. Various governments have issued semi postal postage stamps to raise funds for the Red Cross or other charitable causes. From the onset Christmas seals received much public acclaim and were soon sought after by collectors and postal historians. Today, as a collectable item, their monetary worth varies considerably.

At the beginning of the 1900s tuberculosis was a greatly feared disease, and its harmful effects on children seemed particularly devastating. In 1904, Einar Holbøll, a Danish postal clerk, developed the idea of adding an extra charitable stamp on mailed holiday greetings during Christmas. The money raised would be used to help children sick with tuberculosis. Prior to his death in 1927 Holboell was knighted by the king of Denmark for his contributions in the effort to fight tuberculosis and for associating Christmas with the need to help those afflicted with the disease. He was also honored by a number of other countries, including the United States, for his efforts. In 1904, the world's first Christmas seal was issued in Denmark, bearing the likeness of the Danish Queen (Louise of Hesse Kassel) and the word Julen (Christmas). Over 4 million were sold in the first year at DKK 0.02 per seal, raising more than $18,000, which in 1904 was a considerable sum of money. The following year the sale of Christmas Seals brought even more money to the fight against tuberculosis. During the first six years, enough funds were raised to build the Christmas Seal Sanatorium in Kolding, which was opened in 1911. The same year the sanatorium was transferred to the administration of the Danish National Association to Combat Tuberculosis as it was considered a waste of resources to have two organizations working towards the same purpose. Fundraising would successfully continue via Christmas Seals for years to come. The Danish Christmas Seal Committee, today known as Julemærkefonden (the Christmas Seal Fund), decided at that time to put all future collected funds to use in building and operating convalescent homes for children. In 1958 a controversy over the appearance of Santa Claus on a Danish Christmas seal started when Rev. Paul Nedergad, a Copenhagen clergyman, referred to Santa Claus as a "pagan goblin". He insisted that people should find another way to help the charitable cause to fight tuberculosis and boycott the Christmas seal in question. Most of the people of Denmark, however, paid little attention to Negerdard's comment and continued to buy the Christmas seals that depicted Santa Claus.

By 1908, the campaign had reached Canada. Interested people in Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario began Christmas seal campaigns to build and support sanatoriiums, as tuberculosis hospitals were then called. The Toronto Globe came promptly to their aid. Early in December, the Globe began running a daily story on the front page giving news of the campaign. The column was bordered by holly so that readers could easily spot it. One story told how the children of 58 Toronto schools had sold 10,000 Christmas seals. Another issue announced that out in Regina, Saskatchewan another paper, the Regina Leader, had written to say its staff would sell the seals and send the money back for the sanatorium being built in Muskoka. From Saint John, New Brunswick, the Rev. G. A. Moore wrote to say that he and other volunteers would sell 8,500 and send the money to Toronto for its sanatorium. That first year, the Toronto campaign brought in $7,358.65 (the equivalent of almost $200,000 today). and Hamilton citizens gave $1,244.40. Year by year, other cities across Canada tried the Christmas seal campaign as a means not only of raising money but of creating the awareness that tuberculosis could be controlled.

Soon after Denmark issued the first Christmas seal, Sweden and Iceland followed Seals then spread throughout Scandinavia and every major country in Europe, and are still popular today. Christmas seals have been issued by hundreds of different societies, nationally, and locally in Asia, Africa, North and South America, and Australia. The majority of all tuberculosis seals since then were issued at Christmas time and included the international symbol against tuberculosis, the double barred Cross of Lorraine.

Various governments from around the world have also issued semi postal postage stamps to help raise funds for the Red Cross and for the fight against tuberculosis, with countries like France, Spain and Belgium having produced hundreds. Beginning in the First World War France issued semi postal stamps to raise funds for Red Cross who were overwhelmed by the many thousands of people who were wounded during the war. Eventually the French colonies were also producing semi postals. The idea of semi postals helping fund the Red Cross soon spread among the countries that were affected by the war, with more than 230 different semi postals issued by 47 countries. Spain and its colonies rivaled those of France with approximately 150 semi postals issued. France began issuing semi postals to raise funds for the Red Cross in 1918, all of which bear the red cross symbol. Belgium issued charity stamps in the form of semi postals, with the denomination on the right going to a charitable cause. The first such issues were released in 1914. The other European countries that have issued semi postal stamps for the Red Cross and various tuberculosis foundations include Belgium, Finland, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, among others.

There are nearly one hundred different lung associations worldwide that issue Christmas seals. Many different countries issue their own Christmas seals, as well as cities, states and territories. Green's Catalog, considered by many collectors as the bible of US and worldwide tuberculosis Christmas seal collecting would distinguish them as national versus local Christmas seals. Many tuberculosis seal issuing societies are members of the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, which holds a Christmas seal contest for best design among their Organizational and Constituent seal issuing members at their annual World Conference on Lung Health. Korea, after much effort to sell the idea in of raising funds to combat tuberculosis in Korea, issued its first Christmas seal in 1933. Charged with this effort, the Korean Medical Missionary Association formed a committee. All religions and nationalities in Korea were represented, and it received funds and aid from the Church of England, the United Church of Canada as well as various health organizations within Korea itself. Mexico, through the Comite Nacional de Lucha contra la Tuberculosis, in their effort to fight the dreaded lung disease, issued its first Christmas seals in 1943.

Beginning in 1907 when Christmas seals were first issued the incident of seals used in place of postage stamps became a common problem. Subsequently, by 1911 the U. S. Post Office adopted a policy that prohibited the placement of Christmas Seals on the same side of a postcard or envelope as the address. By 1930 the problem became less prevalent. Before 1930 nearly all Christmas Seals found on U. S. mail were used on Christmas greetings postcards, as there were no commercial Christmas Cards with envelopes and postage for postcards was only a penny. Today postcards with Christmas seals tied on with a postmark with the same year date as the Christmas seal for that year are not common and often scarce, and in some instances rare.

Many other seals to raise funding for charitable efforts were issued during Christmas season, often with Christmas themes, by religious organizations, civic and fraternal societies, patriotic organizations, etc. Since they were not issued to fight tuberculosis specifically they lack the double barred Cross of Lorraine, the international symbol for the fight against tuberculosis, which was proposed and established in 1902 at the International Conference on Tuberculosis in Berlin Germany, and strictly speaking do not qualify as what is commonly known as Christmas seals. Between 1937 and 1943 the Danish Nazi Party (DNSAP) issued a variety of seals featuring the Nazi swastika.> These scarce seals contain Christmas themes like holly, but there is no indication on these seals that connect them to the fight against tuberculosis, and for this reason, they are not listed in Green's Catalog. History has shown that most dictatorial regimes suspend Christmas seals from being issued. This happened in Korea under the Japanese occupation, China under the communists, and Argentina under Eva Peron.

When Christmas seals first appeared at the beginning of the 20th century they received much favor and acclaim from the general public, and from stamp and postal history collectors in particular. Prices for the various issues can range from inexpensive, to moderately priced to those of considerable value, depending on availability, type, centering and condition. The catalogue value of a Christmas seal, as with postage stamps and coins, usually increases over time. For example, in 1935 the Scott Catalogue value for a Christmas seal issued in 1915 was 25 cents. In 1983 its catalogue value increased to $4. By 2014 the Scott Catalogue Value was fixed at $9.00. Used seals, and those with no gum and/or have a straight edge on one side, usually command about one half the price of a seal in unused, (mint) fine to very fine (F VF) condition. In cases where a Christmas seal is tied alongside a postage stamp, with a postmark with the same year date in which the given Christmas seal was issued often commands much higher prices than those that have been cancelled and are no longer affixed to a postcard or envelope. On December 4, 2014, a postcard bearing a rare variety of a 1911, type 5, considered the rarest U. S. Christmas seal, sold at auction on eBay for a record amount of $$3,433.83. The postcard was postmarked December 20, 1911, at Station C in Los Angeles and mailed to Fort Wayne, Indiana In another definitive example, a 1919 issue U. S. Christmas seal of a rare type was sold at auction and realized a price of $3,872,533. One of the oldest Christmas seal societies of service to collectors of Christmas seals is The Christmas Seal and Charity Stamp Society, founded in 1931, an affiliate of the American Philatelic Society. It functions as a source of information for collectors and publishes a quarterly journal, Seal News, and a large catalog of Christmas seal collecting literature. They also conduct auctions through each issue of their journal.