Every year, PostNL (the Dutch post office) releases new decemberzegels, or December stamps, for use during the holiday period. This year they can be used from 10 November to 3 January for letters. They are like America’s “forever stamps”, as you can keep using them every December. Currently you can use stamps from 2010 and newer.

The theme this year is fairy tales from the Efteling, a Dutch theme park. Some of the themes are the Princess and the pea, Cinderella and Hansel and Gretel. Each sheet has 10 unique stamps (PostNL decemberzegels page in Dutch).

Here’s a close up:

This year I used my last 2021 stamp, actually, so I had to buy more. Earlier this month I went to one of the PostNL pakketpunten, a place to pick up and send packages in random stores like flower shops or dry cleaners. They make a bit of money (not a lot!) for each package that goes through their hands.

Mind you, I have lived in the Netherlands since late 2012. I recently celebrated my 13th anniversary here (December 18, 2012). The conversation I had with the shopkeeper was in Dutch, with no issues on my side. But I was reminded that I still have an American accent, because at some point the shopkeeper asked, in Dutch, “You know you can use these to send mail internationally, right? Just add two stamps instead of one, provided it doesn’t weigh more than 50 grams”. I said something “Oh, cool, I didn’t know”, since I didn’t. After I left I realized he probably mentioned that because of my accent…

Heh. Oh well!