Every year on October 1, postcard people around the world celebrate World Postcard Day.
I like that this day exists. Not because we need a special date to send postcards, but because it is nice to know that on the same day, thousands of other people are sitting down with postcards, stamps, and pens too.
World Postcard Day is actually quite a new celebration.
The idea grew out of Postcrossing’s celebration of the 150th anniversary of the postcard in 2019. October 1 was chosen because the first official postcard was issued by the Austrian Post on October 1, 1869. For the anniversary, Postcrossing organised a worldwide campaign with postcard exhibitions, meetups, special cancellation marks, workshops and other events. Some of the postcards created for the celebration were even exhibited at the Universal Postal Union headquarters in Bern.
The response was so good that Postcrossing decided the postcard deserved its own day every year. With the help of Finepaper, they launched the first World Postcard Day on October 1, 2020.
For the first celebration, people were invited to take part in a postcard design contest, and the winning design was made available for everyone to use. Despite 2020 being a rather unusual year for organising anything, postal services, museums, schools, libraries, philately events and postcard communities around the world still joined in.
Since then, October 1 has become an annual excuse to celebrate postcards, send a few more than usual, and remember that this very simple piece of paper has been connecting people for more than 150 years.
If you want to explore the story further, the official World Postcard Day website has a really nice timeline of postcard history, from the earliest ideas to the present day. You can also find more about how World Postcard Day started on the Postcrossing history page.
World Postcard Day 2026
The official theme for 2026 is Paper Bridges.
I think that describes postcards very well. A postcard starts as a small piece of paper, but once you write something on it, add a stamp and put it into a postbox, it becomes a tiny connection between two places and two people.
Sometimes those people live on opposite sides of the world. Sometimes they live in the same city and simply have not seen each other for a while.
Do I need a special World Postcard Day postcard?
No.
There is an official World Postcard Day design every year, but you can celebrate with any postcard you want to send.
You can choose a special WPD postcard, something from your collection, a card that perfectly matches the recipient, or simply one you have been saving for too long.
The important part is sending it.
I also make my own World Postcard Day postcards every year, simply because I love having a card that marks the occasion. They become tiny dated memories once they have travelled and collected a postmark on the way.
How can you celebrate World Postcard Day?
The easiest answer is obvious: send a postcard.
But there are plenty of ways to make a little event out of it.
Send a postcard to someone who does not usually receive mail. Request a few Postcrossing addresses and spend an evening writing them. Send a card to an old friend. Choose a postcard from your collection that you have been saving for the “right person”. Use some of the stamps you have been keeping because they are too pretty. Decorate your cards with stickers, washi or little drawings. Write your postcards together with a friend. Or send just one card.
You do not need a stack of twenty postcards for the day to count.
What should I write?
This is probably the question postcard writers ask most often.
For World Postcard Day, you can keep it very simple.
Tell the recipient that you are writing the card because it is World Postcard Day. Tell them what the weather is like where you are, what you did that morning, what book you are reading, what you can see from your window or why you chose that particular postcard for them.
A postcard does not need to contain an important story. Often the ordinary little details are the nicest ones to receive. If you need more ideas I created free PDF guide with 50 ideas what to write on a postcard.
Prepare before October 1
If you want to celebrate this year, I would prepare your postcards before the actual day.
Choose a few cards, check that you have enough stamps and maybe make a short list of people you would like to write to.
Then October 1 can be about actually sitting down and writing instead of searching through drawers for the stamp you were sure you had somewhere.
My World Postcard Day collection is already available in the shop too, with several designs made especially for this year’s postcard celebrations.
But whichever postcard you choose, send one. That is really the whole point. A postcard is a very small thing.
Until someone finds it in their mailbox.
You might also enjoy:
- Why Is It So Hard to Know What to Write on a Postcard?
- Postcrossing Starter Guide
- Everything for Postcrossing
- Postcard Collection
- Postcard message ideas
