Christmas themes hit business reply envelopes

We’re not quite into October yet, but Christmas-themed mailings are already showing up from various nonprofit organizations. I received a pane of this year’s Christmas Seals from the American Lung Association just last week, and the business reply envelopes enclosed in two other mailings are also holiday-related.

The first envelope is from Shriners Children’s Hospitals. It bears three preprinted stamp-sized designs picturing Santa Claus, a Christmas tree, and a reindeer.

The second BRE came from Operation Smile, and at first glance I thought the preprinted designs on it were ones I’d seen previously. It turns out I was wrong, however; the envelope I received last fall bore images picturing a fat dove, a skinny Christmas tree, and the word “peace.” This year’s envelope replaces the “peace” design with one reading “joy”; meanwhile, the fat dove on last year’s is replaced by a skinny dove, and the skinny Christmas tree on with a fat one.

I do like how the simulated die cut border gives these designs the appearance of being coil stamps; that’s a level of detail that doesn’t seem to be especially common on BREs. The only way it could be better is if there were actual cinderella stamps attached!

Published 2024-09-29