Christmas Seal

The Danish Christmas seal of 1904 features the Danish Queen Louise.

Christmas Seals are labels placed on mail during the Christmas season to raise funds and awareness for charitable programs.They have become particularly associated with lung diseases such as tuberculosis, and with child welfare. Christmas seals are regarded as a form of cinderella stamp.^[1]

Origins

At the beginning of the 1900s tuberculosis was a greatly feared disease, and its harmful effects on children seemed particularly cruel. In 1903,^[2] Einar Holbøll, a Danish postal clerk developed the idea of adding an extra charitable stamp on mailed holiday greetings during Christmas. The money raised could be used to help children sick with tuberculosis. The plan was approved by the Postmaste r and the King of Denmark (Christian IX).

In 1904 the world’s first Christmas Seal was issued, bearing the likeness of the Danish Queen (Louise of Hesse-Kassel) and the word Julen (Christmas). Over 4 million were sold in the first year at DKK 0.02 per seal.

During the first six years, enough funds were raised to build the Christmas Seal Sanatorium in Kolding, which was opened in 1911. The same year the sanatorium was transferred to the administration of the Danish National Association to Combat Tuberculosis as it was considered a waste of resources to have two organisations working towards the same purpose. The Danish Christmas Seal Committee – today known as Julemærkefonden (the Christmas Seal Fund) - decided at that time to put all future collected funds to use in building and operating convalescent homes for children.

Christmas seals in Europe

Soon after Denmark issued the first Christmas seal, Sweden and Iceland followed. Seals then spread throughout Scandinavia and are still popular today. They have also been issued by Greenland, Norway, Finland, The Danish West Indies, The Virgin Islands, Estonia and The Faroe Islands.

A 1914 American Christmas seal.

Christmas seals in the United States

They were introduced to the United States by Emily Bissell in 1907, after she had read about the program in an article by Danish-born Jacob Riis, a muckraking journalist and photographer. Bissell hoped to raise money for a sanitarium on the Brandywine Creek in Delaware.

It grew to a national program in 1908 by the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis (NASPT) and the American National Red Cross. The seals were sold at post offices, initially in Delaware at 1 cent each. Net proceeds from the sales would be divided equally between the two organizations. By 1920, the Red Cross withdrew from the arrangement and sales were conducted exclusively by the NASPT, then known as the National Tuberculosis Association (NTA). Various promotional schemes were tried: in 1954 the small town of Saranac Lake, New York (home of the Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium) won a nationwide competition selling Christmas Seals, the reward for which was hosting the world premiere of the Paul Newman film, The Silver Chalice; the cast participated in a parade in the town's annual winter carnival.

After World War II with the development of the antibiotic streptomycin TB became a curable disease, although it would be decades before it could be considered under control in developed countries. To reflect the expanding scope of the organization's goals, the name was changed to the National Tuberculosis and Respiratory Disease Association in the late 1960s. The NTRDA became the American Lung Association in 1973, though the 1974 seals continue to show the NTRDA inscription on the sheet margin.

Today the Christmas Seals benefit the American Lung Association and other lung related issues. Tuberculosis was declining, but recently has been on the rise. TB is still one of the most common major infectious diseases in the world.

Christmas Seals in Canada

By 1908, the campaign had reached Canada. Interested people in Toronto and Hamilton began Christmas Seal campaigns to build and support sanatoria, as TB hospitals were called back then.

The old Toronto Globe came promptly to their aid. Early in December, the Globe began running a daily story on the front page giving news of the campaign. The column was bordered by holly so that readers could easily spot it.

One story told how the children of 58 Toronto schools had sold 10,000 Christmas Seals. Another issue announced that out on the Prairies a new paper called the Regina Leader, had written to say its staff would sell the seals and send the money back for the sanatorium being built at Muskoka.

From Saint John, N.B. the Rev. G. A. Moore wrote to say that he and other volunteers would sell 8,500 and send the money to Toronto for the sanatorium.

That first year, the Toronto campaign brought in $6,114.25 and Hamilton citizens gave $1,244.40. Year by year, other cities across Canada tried the Christmas Seal campaign as a means not only of raising money but of creating the awareness that tuberculosis could be controlled.

Finally, in 1927, it was agreed that the Christmas Seal campaign was to be the official method for tuberculosis associations to appeal to the public for funds. A national seal was established.

Christmas Seal campaigns have played an important role in public health.

At first, the money raised was used for the new and badly needed sanatoria. When these were established, Christmas Seal funds were used for TB prevention. The seals have paid for millions of Canadians to have chest X-ray or tuberculin tests. As a result, thousands of TB cases were discovered before disease spread to others.

Christmas Seals symbolize the grassroots support of Canadians that helped win the fight against TB.^[3]

Other Christmas Seals

Anyone can issue a seal at Christmas time. Between 1937 and 1943 the Danish Nazi Party (DNSAP) issued a variety of seals featuring the Nazi swastika. These scarce historic seals contain Christmas themes like holly, but had no known connection to the fight against TB. One can only speculate how the Nazis spent the funds raised from the sale of these seals. Many other charitable funds were issued at Christmas time, often with Christmas themes, by religious organizations, civic & fraternal societies, patriotic organizations, sororities, etc. These seals are of related interest to Christmas Seal collectors, but are not "Christmas Seals" by the strict definition of the term unless they fought TB in their origin, and later, lung diseases such as asthma and emphysema.

See also

• The Christmas Seal & Charity Stamp Society
• Easter Seals A charitable organization for helping handicapped children.
• Easter seals (philately) Easter seals in stamp collecting.

References

1. ^ Mackay, James. Philatelic Terms Illustrated, 4th edition, Stanley Gibbons, London, 2003, p.25. ISBN 0-85259-557-3
2. ^ http://www.visitnordjylland.dk/international/en-gb/menu/turist/inspiration/christmas/seal/seal.htm
3. ^ Association, Lung. "History: Support Christmas Seals". Canadian Lung Association. http://www.lung.ca/involved-impliquez/christmas-noel/history-histoire/index_e.php. Retrieved 13 October 2011. 

External links

• The Christmas Seal and Charity Stamp Society A non profit organization founded in 1931, publishing catalogs of worldwide fund raising seals including Christmas and Easter seals, as well as a quarterly journal, Seal News.
• The Christmas Philatelic Club
• The Cinderella Stamp Club
• Canadian Lung Association Gallery of stamps since 1927