Slovak Post has organised the Christmas Mail since 1999. It is a unique and highly popular project that focuses on children and families, togetherness and tradition. Over the 25 years of the Christmas Mail, more than 2,350,000 wishes have been received from children from all over the world at the address “999 99 Ježiško” in the municipality of Rajecká Lesná, where the post box is located. Although last year the majority of letters and postcards addressed to the Baby Jesus came from Slovakia, he also received mail from children in Taiwan, the Czech Republic, China, Germany, Great Britain and many other countries. All those children who include their correspondence address will receive a reply from the assistants of Baby Jesus plus a small gift. They not only reply in Slovak, but also in English and Braille.
Every year Slovak Post awards a child who dedicates an exceptional drawing to the Baby Jesus and their artwork becomes the motif for the Christmas postage stamp of the following year. This year’s occasional postage stamp, from the Christmas Mail series, was inspired by “Snowman” drawn by Hana Neumannová from Komárno. The motif on the FDC was based on “Winter Town”, a theme created by Tomáš Varmus from Bardejov and the Christmas FDC postmark was inspired by “Snowman with a Present” by Filip Šmehýl from Považská Bystrica. The graphic design for the artwork was finalised by the painter Vladislav Rostoka. As part of an effort to increase the popularity of the Christmas Mail project among pupils at primary schools, Slovak Post also prepared a series of occasional postmarks, created from designs by children, for the opening of the Christmas Post Office in Rajecká Lesná. The first is the occasional postmark with a Christmas tree motif for the inauguration of this year's postage stamp issue and a set of four Advent postmarks bearing an Advent wreath, which were created by the graphic designer Adrian Ferda from pictures by pupils of the J. A. Comenius Primary and Nursery School in Bratislava.
