Illustrator of the 2022 set FABIO AGIUS speaks with Esther Lafferty about the unique designs.

This year, MaltaPost has released Christmas stamps that deviate from the annual recrea­tions of nativity scenes. Instead, this latest stamp issue, designed by illustrator and MaltaPost employee Fabio Agius, shows an imagined scene of Advent industry at the North Pole.

“I have been working in the archives at MaltaPost for 27 years, and every year we produce Christmas stamps,” says Agius.

“As Malta is such a Catholic country, they have almost always been based on the Christmas story, so this year it is fantastic to be doing something more innovative. These stamps are giving us a sneaky peek right inside Santa’s workshop.”

Illustrator and MaltaPost employee Fabio Agius

While Agius and his colleagues brainstormed ideas for the annual Christmas stamp, Agius, who is also a comic artist and co-founder of Wicked Comics – the organisers of the Malta Comic-Con – suggested they would depict Father Christmas’s workshop.

“I made a sketch for my colleagues to consider and was thrilled when they accepted.”

Agius drew the final artwork in the traditional comic-book way – pencilling it first and then adding ink to give a black and white outline. He then scanned the image and added the colour in Photoshop.

MaltaPost’s Christmas stamps for 2022 depicting Santa’s Workshop.

The miniature sheet bears two stamps depicting two elves while the two single stamps portray an elf collecting Santa’s mail from a letterbox while the other shows him busying himself reading a letter in front of a roaring fire.

It’s such a wonderful feeling when you receive a personal letter

The stamps show a cross section inside a cosy wooden workshop, on the ceiling of which Christmas light twinkle. Stylistically, the picture could have come from a children’s book; designed to appeal to children, it’s a busy colourful scene resplendent with delight and happiness.

“We are delighted to be issuing these light-hearted designs this Christmas,” says Mary Grace Simpson, Head of Philately.

“We hope they will appeal to all ages and encourage youngsters to send cards and letters the traditional way. It’s such a wonderful feeling when you receive an envelope containing a personal letter or something special through the post, and at Christmas, for children, the stamp can be part of the anticipation of opening it to see what’s inside,” she says.

Four stamps that evoke 1930s poster art celebrating local beverages.

Simpson emphasised, however, that Christmas is about the nati­vity nevertheless, and said it is important to remember this fact.

In light of this, MaltaPost is issuing a second Christmas stamp set on December 16 – a miniature sheet bearing three stamps depicting terracotta works by Maltese sculptor Joseph Scerri.

These first Christmas releases come hot on the heels of an October stamp issue to celebrate Malta Comic Con, from which artwork was taken directly from the contemporary world of comics.

Superhero stamp series

Arguably the coolest stamps in the world, they show St George fighting a giant green dragon on a megalithic temple, drawn by Agius, a superhero hovering alongside a guard tower over the Grand Harbour by Lee Townsend and, by Mario Torrisi, fishermen with a Maltese hound and two perched on a rock between azure seas and a giant golden sun.

Earlier in the year, a series of four stamps that evoke 1930s poster art celebrates the local beverages we’ll all be enjoying this Christmas.

With designs like these, when stamp sets will slide easily into a Christmas stocking, isn’t it time for stamp collecting to come into vogue for a younger generation?