Britain's most spectacular commemoratives, No50: 1981 Christmas 11 1/2p
Have you ever seen a jollier Father Christmas than the one realised by five-year-old Samantha Brown, the youngest ever designer of a British stamp?
One result of a competition on BBC Television’s Blue Peter programme, which attracted a staggering 74,000 entries and resulted in a set of five very different designs, Samantha’s glorious Santa beams at us with beady eyes, holding his arms wide with presents falling all around him.
Unencumbered by any other design detail, he is the total focus of our attention, and is he not the epitome of a toddler’s idea of Father Christmas: happy, cuddly, brightly coloured and full of surprises?
Design: Samantha Brown.
Printing: photogravure by Harrisons.
