Royal Mail’s popular Christmas Stamp Competition is returning for 2017. The competition gives primary school and home-schooled children the chance to design some of the official Christmas stamps for this year. 

Two winning designs will be selected by a panel of judges to appear on one of the 1^st or 2^nd class stamps and therefore be seen on millions of items of mail sent over the Christmas period. As with all special stamps, both designs will have to be approved by Her Majesty the Queen before they can be released.

The theme of this year’s competition is “What does the Christmas season mean to you?”. This will be only the fourth time that official Royal Mail Christmas stamps have been designed by children, so it is an exciting opportunity to make history!

I’m encouraging all the primary schools in my constituency, as well as the parents of home-schooled children, to sign up for the competition. Further information is available at www.royalmail.com/stampcompetition.

The closing date for entries is Friday 17^th March and winners will be announced in the summer.