Postcrossing Blog

Last year, we ran our biennial census, and an incredible 21,186* of you took some time to answer the many questions. Thank you! 🙏 The census is an important event for Postcrossing, because it offers lots of valuable insights into the project. Although most of the data does not change very much from year to year, there are always interesting shifts and trends to uncover. Ready to look at some charts? Let’s go!

First off, here’s a chart of how happy people are with their postal service. We asked the same question some years ago… so what has changed in the last few years?

While overall happiness levels remain similar, there’s been a dip in the strongest positive ratings. In other words, fewer people think their postal service is “fantastic”, and more believe there’s room for improvement. This isn’t exactly surprising, given the financial and logistical challenges postal services have faced in recent years… but still, it’s a bit disheartening to see. 😕

Of course, this sentiment varies wildly from country to country. If you’d like to see a breakdown by country from some years ago, check out this blog post.

One of the interesting trends from the census is a shift in where people buy their postcards. Take a look:

Back in 2020, local postcard shops were still a popular source, slightly ahead of online shops. But in just a few years, that’s changed dramatically. Online shops have now taken the lead by a significant margin, while local postcard shops have dropped in popularity, currently being overtaken by online shops, museums, and other local stores.

Is this shift due to the convenience of online shopping? A decline in physical postcard shops? Rising postage costs influencing bulk online purchases? Probably a mix of all these factors… but whatever the case, it’s clear that postcrossers are adapting to new ways of stocking up on postcards!

In 2024's census, we introduced a couple of new questions, one of which asked: are you sending more postcards now than two years ago?

At first glance, the results were a pleasant surprise—most people reported sending more postcards than before! 🎉 But then, we took a closer look…

A large portion of respondents (around 20%) joined Postcrossing within the past year. That means their “increase” in sending might simply be because they weren’t sending many postcards before discovering Postcrossing. So, we decided to refine the data and look only at members who had been with Postcrossing for over two years:

And… there it is. When excluding newer members, the trend flips: most long-time members are actually sending fewer postcards. There are probably multiple reasons for this — rising postage costs, shifting personal priorities, or maybe just life getting in the way. It’s a sad trend, but also an expected one.

What about meetups? Have postcrossers been to meetings before?

Looks like only a small percentage has ever been to a meetup, which is a bit of a pity, really! Meetups are a great way to connect with fellow postcrossers, exchange postcards, and share stories. If you haven’t attended one yet, we really encourage you to give it a try — whether by finding a local meetup or even organizing your own. Who knows? You might make some new friends along the way!

One of the parts of the census that we pay especially attention to is the disabilities question, where we ask members how impairments affect their Postcrossing experience. Unlike other questions, this one isn’t easily represented visually, as replies come in the form of text. But after reading through the responses, we noticed that most of them fall into these main categories:

• Mental health conditions (like ADHD, anxiety, depression, etc.)
• Mobility and chronic pain issues (mostly arthritis, chronic back pain, wheelchair use, fatigue)
• Vision impairments
• Other physical or neurological conditions (including Parkinson’s, post-stroke effects, hand tremors, cancer treatments and dyslexia or dysgraphia)

For many of these issues, there is little that Postcrossing can do… but still, this kind of feedback is super valuable to us. By understanding these challenges, we can work towards making Postcrossing more accessible — sometimes in surprisingly simple ways, like adjusting font choices or rewording certain instructions. But since we don’t experience these challenges ourselves, we rely on feedback from the community to help guide us.

One thing we found surprising is that a lot of people reported that Postcrossing actually helps them cope with their disabilities — for instance, by giving people a small, finite task to focus on (e.g.: writing a postcard or taking a walk to the nearest postbox). Many state that it improves their mental health, and that Postcrossing’s “send at your own pace” model allows people to participate only when they have enough energy or resources, reducing guilt and pressure. These are factors we don’t usually consider, so it’s amazing to learn about them!

Finally, another new question we asked last year was: have used or printed the official World Postcard Day design provided by Postcrossing?

14%! At first glance, that might not seem like much… but actually, we think it’s not a bad number! If the percentage were too high, everyone would be receiving the same postcard design, which might get a bit repetitive. But if it were too low, it would mean our work was going unnoticed… So 14% feels like a good balance, and we’re curious to see how this number shifts in future years.

And that’s it for 2024’s census highlights! We’re big data nerds, so looking at numbers and statistics is always fascinating — we hope you found these insights as interesting as we did.

What do you think? Are you perhaps surprised by some of these, or is everything more or less what you expected?

A huge thank you again to everyone who took the time to participate! ❤️

(*) While 21,186 responses is a substantial sample, naturally we can’t assume it represents all postcrossers. Some people might be less at ease answering surveys (perhaps due to language barriers) which could influence the results. So, let’s keep that in mind and try to interpret the findings with caution!

A while ago, the Little Mail Carriers visited Bali to meet Vonny (aka postcrossingbali). They’ve been excited to write about the experience, so let’s turn it straight over to them!

Om Swastiastu! That is Balinese greeting meaning “May peace be with you”.

I Gusti Ngurah Rai is one of Indonesia’s National Heroes and the International Airport in Bali is named after him. The red writing above shows how it is written in the Balinese script, natively known as Aksara Bali and Hanacaraka. It is an abugida used in the island of Bali, commonly for writing the Austronesian Balinese language, Old Javanese, and the liturgical language Sanskrit.

In Bali we encountered many entrance gates like this, it is called Gapura Candi Bentar. It is decorated with Balinese style carving depicting the life of traditional Balinese people containing the symbol Rwa Bhineda, two things that always coexist such as yin & yang or good & bad sides of life to maintain the balance of nature, along with the Ang and Ah script inserted that means sky/father and earth/mother, so when these two put together it will form a life. It is formed by strong pillars that serve as a guardian and protector of its inhabitants. All together, it is hoped that anyone who passes through the Candi Bentar can have good thoughts, words and deeds when in the area of the house or building. Indirectly, this is also believed to be able to protect the occupants of the house from all kinds of evil intentions.

Balinese are very religious. There are also many small temples in Bali where the Hindu can come, pray and give offerings. This one is located in the International Airport Garden Area.

This huge, beautiful sculpture, called Satria Gatot Kaca (Gatot Kaca Knight), is located just in front of Bali’s Airport. It is made by famous sculture artist from Ubud – Bali, namely Wayan Winten in October 1993. The statue portrays a scene from the Mahabharata story, where the knight Gatot Kaca, the son of Bima, one of the five Pandavas (who is famous for his courage and bravery), is standing on top of Karna (Kaurava)'s famous many horse chariot, holding his famous Ganda Angkasa (sky club). This statue symbolises the courage and chivalry that will bring glory, and is believed to provide security and spiritual protection for travelers visiting Bali.

Bali is one of the 17,508 islands in Indonesia and the only Hindu-majority province in Muslim-majority Indonesia. Bali has a unique culture and customs, one you cannot find anywhere else in the world. Diversity is very much well accepted in Bali. You can sometimes see a church, mosque and pura (Balinese Temple) located harmoniously side by side.

It is very common in Bali that culture and religion infused together. One of the example is this magnificent architecture of Catholic Cathedral richly decorated in Balinese style. It can easily be mistaken as a Pura (Balinese Temple).

The weather when we were in Bali was just perfect, and we enjoyed taking a stroll through the rice paddies. While we were there, the rice was just ripening, so the farmers hung colourful cloths to scare away the wild birds to stop them from eating the rice.

Look at these beautiful sculptures of Balinese Man and Woman we encountered in front of a local’s house entrance, and the pretty front of this house. This complex style decoration can be found almost everywhere in Bali!

This is Sesajen, an offering given to the Gods as a way to say thank you for the blessing given. It is done daily by setting aside a small portion of food that they have on that day.

Bali is surrounded with many beautiful beaches, and the sunset is so beautiful that photo doesn’t do it justice…

During our trip to Bali, we arrived just in time to experience Nyepi. Nyepi is once in a year Day of Silence to commemorate every Saka New Year (Balinese Calendar). During Nyepi, the Balinese Hindu will be fasting, doing self reflection and meditating from 6 am in the morning until the 6 am the following morning. In these 24 hours, there are restrictions such as no lighting fires or lights, no working, no entertainment or pleasure, no travelling and for some no talking or eating at all.

3 or 4 days before Nyepi, the Balinese do “Melasti”. It is a ritual performed to cleanse the world from all the filth of sin and bad karma. It’s held on the edge of the beach with the aim to purify oneself of all the bad things in the past and throw it to the ocean. We were told that this ritual is done all over Bali beaches.

Months before Nyepi, the Balinese make Ogoh-ogoh. These are demonic statues made from bamboo, cloth or styrofoam, symbolizing negative elements or malevolent spirits or even characters from Hindu mytology. The night before Nyepi, the Ogoh-ogoh will be paraded around, then burned to vanquish the negative elements and create a balance with God, Mankind and Nature. Because of the pandemic, for a while the parades were not allowed, and they were simply displayed in front of community halls.

Especially the day before Nyepi, there are so many people stopping to take picture of the Ogoh-ogoh and creating slow traffic. We, of course, joined them for Ogoh-ogoh hunting. Above are some of the Ogoh-ogoh we managed to take picture of.

Balinese set up offerings in front of their houses, and decorate the Pura and streets with Penjor to celebrate Nyepi. We saw some Pura with many Balinese bustling in and out bringing offering and praying preparing for Nyepi!

Near one of the Pura, we smelled something really amazing to eat, so good it made our stomachs rumble! Just next to the temple, there was a lady selling Sate Babi (grilled Pork Satay marinated richly in spices). The lady was very kind and friendly to us and proudly showed us the Tipat, steamed rice cake packed inside a diamond-shaped container of woven palm leaf pouch that are eaten along with the Sate Babi and Balinese Sambal (chilli sauce). Our host assured us we could find this yummy Sate Babi almost everywhere in Bali and not only during special events, although there are many more sellers when there is a ceremony. It tastes very yummy and a bit spicy, but we really enjoyed it.

On Nyepi Day, we woke up to a very peaceful quiet morning. It’s very quiet: we were having a hard time to find words on how to explain the sound of “total silence”. We could only hear the sound of the birds chirping and even the breeze through the leaves. There were no other noises, especially from vehicles or machinary, even human voices were kept to the minimum. We took a peek outside our host’s residence — the main road that was usually bustling with traffic was totally empty! And we noticed the air feels different, it was very fresh and cool. We guess it is very clean because there is zero pollution during that time. There were only few pecalang (local security) patrolling making sure all is well and to provide assistance if needed in case of emergency. We were told that today everything is closed, even the airport and harbor. Only the hospital is open, but you will need a special permit to go there since no one is allowed to go out.

At night, we ate a simple easy meal — our host prepared us the famous Indonesian instant noodles, Indomie Goreng, yummy! It is listed as the best-tasting instant ramen 2019 by the Los Angeles Times, and it justified its title! Since we are not allowed to turn on the light, we ate under a small torch. It’s a unique fun experience.

After dinner, we went to the rooftop to see the sky. The view was breathtaking, the sky was a sea of bright stars since there was no light all around us. Despite it being cloudy at that time, we could still see many stars shining clearly, it’s like bilions of diamonds scattered throughout the sky. Our host told us had it not been cloudy, it would have been much more beautiful. Many tourists and famous photographers come to Bali just to experience and taking picture of the night sky during Nyepi.

Before we left, of course we had to send some postcards. We visited the main Post Office in Denpasar and its Philately Counter.

On the way to the airport we stop by the Badjra Sandhi Monument which was located nearby the Post Office. This enormous monument was originally built in 1987. It is a symbol to preserve the spirit of the struggle of the Balinese people throughout the generation as well to maintain the integrity of the unitary state of the republic of Indonesia. It has 17 steps at the main door, 8 large pillars inside the monument building and the 45 meter height of the monument symbolizes the Independence Day of the Republic of Indonesia which is 17 August 1945.

It contains 33 dioramas, which cover various incidents in the history of the Balinese, including the Balinese kingdom, the introduction of Hinduism, the Majapahit era, Dutch colonialism, and the struggle for independence.

Well, that sums up our short experience in Bali! We hope to visit again some other time to explore the many parts of Bali we didn’t get to see. Goodbye Bali, hope to see you again!

A big thank you to Vonny for being such a wonderful host and sharing with the community the magic of Bali! We’ll be dreaming of fragrant offerings, dazzling Ogoh-ogoh, and that breathtaking starlit sky for a long time to come.

With their passports in hand and postcards sent, the Little Mail Carriers are off to their next adventure — who knows where we’ll turn up next? See you soon! ✈️

Petr Václavek is the creator of the Acorn Elves, beloved characters in the Postcrossing community and beyond.

Petr paused from his work last autumn to share with Clarisse (aka CStar9) how he got his start in photography, give us an inside look at his artistic process, and let us peek at the cute stickers he debuted last year.

You’ve described the acorn elves (dubánci, in Czech) as a happy accident. When building woodland characters to entertain your children, you ran out of chestnuts and switched to using acorns. At what point did you realize this was an idea that could be widely – even globally – popular?

Yes, it was exactly like that – the acorn elves were created by accident. We ran out of chestnuts and so I used acorns instead, which we had plenty of in the garden. I first realised the popularity of the acorn elves when I posted the first pictures of them on social media – everyone loved them and they were one of my most successful posts. But it took me another year to realize how popular they really are. The first year I made only two or three figures, but a year later I made more and since then I’ve been making them regularly. The most successful one was of course the one sitting on the toilet, which literally went around the world (at least on the internet).

What are some elements that define Dubánci for you?

Playful, curious, mischievous, funny, mischievous again… They are forest creatures that have inhabited oak forests since time immemorial (sometimes you can see them in nature, but they are very shy and can hide themselves skillfully), but at the same time they are – at least some of them – very curious and so they watch what is happening in the human world and then try to imitate humans. But they don’t always get everything right and that’s how a lot of comical situations arise, which I like to capture in photographs.

How do you get an idea from your head to the final image? Which step in that process is generally the most challenging / time-intensive?

The process is sometimes a bit lengthy – sometimes it takes a few years from the initial idea, because I have a lot of ideas and they keep coming. In order to get them out of my head and not forget them, I write them down – actually, I sketch them – in a notebook, and then once in a while I make one of the ideas come true – I build an acorn elf based on the sketch, take it to the woods or some other nice place, take a photo of it there, and then edit the photos in Photoshop at home.

Sometimes the hardest part is to make the acorn elf, sometimes to glue together its equipment (bike, motorbike, lantern), and sometimes it’s much harder to take photos. Just to find a suitable place in the forest I have run dozens of kilometers there. Sometimes the shot needs a lot of editing in Photoshop, because even digital photography isn’t omnipotent (or I shot it wrong).

But I enjoy all of the above stages and am happy when the result entertains the fans.

Is there a particular image that has a funny or surprising creation story?

It’s interesting that even after eight years I still remember where I took each photo, including the story that led to the photo. Many of the photos were taken with my youngest daughter in the stroller – when she was about to go to bed after lunch, I loaded her into the stroller, grabbed my acorn elves and camera, and headed out into the woods. Along the way I looked for nice places to take pictures and when she finally fell asleep, I stopped and took pictures of acorn elves.

I have made several means of transport for the acorn elves. The first one was a bicycle (I am an avid amateur cyclist), followed by a scooter, a skateboard and then a motorbike came to mind. But I wanted it to be perfect, so I found the plans of a historic Czech motorcycle, Jawa 250, and glued together a faithful copy of it. It’s probably their most challenging item – it took me 10 hours to glue it together, but the result is worth it!

While photographing the instructions for making Halloween pumpkin decorations for a children’s magazine, one of the acorn elves dropped his little hand. So I immediately shot a horror scene, which was definitely not in the plan. At least the kids will be more careful of their fingers when they are working with the knife while carving the pumpkins!

My most famous and favourite photo is of the acorn elf sitting on the toilet and reading newspapers. When I was taking a set of postcards for the holiday campers, I thought I would reuse the toilet! All I had to do was make a wooden caddy and a funny new scene was ready!

This was one of the first acorn elves postcards. The owner of a local postcard company talked me into designing a couple of postcards with acorn elves on them. And when I told him that postcards weren’t used much anymore, he showed me Postcrossing. I was impressed and immediately asked him what should be on the postcard, what motif would users like the most. He replied – well, something with mail, like a mailbox. I immediately remembered that a few days ago I was building little houses for the acorn elves in the nearby forest with kids, so I just glued together a mailbox and some letters and postcards from birch bark at home and went to take pictures.

I was once approached by a magazine that said they would like to do an article on acorn elves and that they could be on the cover, but as it was for the Christmas issue they wanted something with a Christmas theme and came up with the nativity scene.

I took it as a challenge and had a great time. Especially shooting in the dark and lighting the scene. It made a perfect cover and to this day it is one of the most beautiful Christmas cards.

What is your studio like?

I may surprise you, but I don’t have a studio. I usually glue them in the evenings at home, right in the living room on the table, when my wife and children are asleep. I have a quiet place to work and no one disturbs me. It’s just that the midnight clean-up is sometimes more difficult, because I have to carry a lot of boxes of material and all sorts of tools while I’m working.

The most important tool in the work is of course the hot glue gun – it’s unbelievable what you can do with a melt gun. At one time I used to make stuffed animals with my youngest daughter with a melt gun because I got tired of sewing them with a needle :) Another must is a sharp knife or gardening shears. But sometimes you also need to use a jigsaw, a hacksaw, a small cutter or a soldering iron.

And if you ever catch me gluing acorn elves in the evening, you might be surprised how often I look in the mirror and try out their poses – I want the result to look as natural as possible. So sometimes I’ll use a mirror, other times I’ll search the internet for inspirational photos of the pose.

Acorn elves look simple. But there are trade skills needed to create their world: woodworking, photography, and design, to name a few. You learned woodworking in your father’s workshop as a child, then studied software engineering and became a programmer and web designer. When did photography come into your toolkit? And, do you still work as a designer?

When I was a kid, I liked to help my dad in the darkroom when he developed our family photos, but I didn’t try photography then. I didn’t get interested until after graduation, when I was a senior front-end developer for a multinational corporation and the first affordable digital cameras came out.

Sometime in 2003 I bought an Olympus C730 digital ultrazoom with an amazing 3 megapixel resolution and 10x optical zoom. It was a small miracle for me and I fell completely in love with digital photography – I watched a lot of photography websites, had my images critiqued and gradually learned how to take decent pictures.

Everyone liked my photos and I often heard that I could do it for a living. So I tried uploading my images to microstock sites and was surprised at how well they sold. So I gradually built up my portfolio on the microstock in the evenings, and later I started adding vector illustrations because I found they sold even more and I enjoyed making them.

As time went on, my earnings from the microstock were more than my income from my corporate job, so I switched to freelancing. Nowadays, I still make my living from the microstock, but I do other graphic design work on commission from time to time, and then of course the acorn elves make some money too, but I still think of them as my creative escapades that I do for fun.

What is your relationship to postal mail, and how has that evolved over time?

I love the mail, it’s always a surprise what turns up in the mailbox and when it arrives. When I discovered Postcrossing, I thought it was a great idea and I love it! My kids and I have sent several postcards out into the world this way. So I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the price of postage doesn’t go up too much and that Postcrossing will continue to thrive in the future.

And one more thing – this year I have prepared a special set of stickers with acorn elves for decorating postcards. So maybe someone will like it.

What’s something you’re proud of, outside of the acorn elves project?

Definitely my kids! We have three and they’re so smart. My oldest is following in my programming footsteps and my two daughters are incredibly creative, so I have my acorn elves followers.

The acorn elves are now postcards, calendars, stickers, t-shirts, books, even games. What’s next for them, and for you?

I’ve been making postcards, calendars, and t-shirts for years. I thought it was a shame to keep the photos only on the internet. This way, the acorn elves are more exposed to the real world and many more people get to know them. Over time, in addition to my Czech e-shop, I started a shop on Zazzle, just to fulfill the wishes of my foreign fans. And of course I also made a separate site in English.

In the last few years, I’ve started to create more books. I began to collaborate with a successful children’s book writer Klara Smolíková and so gradually three books with stories of acorn elves for children were created. It’s a different job again, when I have to read the text and take pictures according to the story.

I didn’t limit the author in any way as to what is and isn’t possible in photography and so there were many challenges that I thought I couldn’t possibly overcome. For example, I photographed a flying bird nest with a lizard and an acorn elf, or an acorn elf with a dog fleeing underground through mole burrows from fighting earthworms. But in the end I did it all! And if I can get a publisher abroad, these lovely books will be published in English.

Actually, I have already published one book in France, bilingual (English and French): Acorn Elves – the lovely creatures from Petr Vaclavek. But it doesn’t contain a story for children; it’s a book of my photos with short bilingual captions, a short interview, and a photo guide for gluing and taking pictures of an acorn elf.

What does the future hold for the acorn elves?

I’d love to see them in an animated movie or TV show someday. I’ve been working with a Czech company on this for a year now, but it’s a long haul – you can’t do it with one person anymore. I definitely also want to try to come up with a board game with acorn elves in the next few years, and maybe we can make a computer game – that would be a nice stepping stone to a movie.

You can find out more about Petr and his acorn elves on his website, Facebook, Instagram, Youtube or other social media. You can also visit his shop for Europe or for the rest of the world.

And now, for the traditional giveaway! Clarisse is going to send 4 postcards featuring Petr’s Acorn Elves to 4 randomly picked postcrossers. To participate, you have to tell us: “If you could create your own acorn elf, what would it look like or what would it be doing?” Leave a comment below, and come back this time next week to check out the winners!

The writing prompts invite postcrossers to write about a different topic on their postcards’ messages every month. These are just suggestions though — if you already know what you want to write about, or the recipient gives you some pointers, that’s great too!

Recently, Barbara (bjhowden) wrote to us about a theme she suggests in her profile for people writing to her: what are your earliest memories? Over time, a lot of people have answered the prompt, and she shared some of the themes with us—the birth of siblings, time with grandparents, pranks played as a child, and sometimes ones which are more bittersweet or painful. Either way, a lot of people seem to want to talk about it.

It’s a lovely project, and we’d like to invite everyone to participate this month in the postcards you write!

Both of my earliest memories are from when I was just barely two years old, so I’ve often been asked if I’m sure I really remember, and don’t just know the story. But my family are pretty certain that I do, because I wasn’t told the story. I remembered it myself, and only shared the fact that I remembered it with my mother much later. It’s surprisingly vivid still, all the same; I remember my grampy (my father’s father) holding me and teaching me to make a strong Lego house by overlapping the bricks instead of just clipping them one on top of the other in a column. My other very early memory is about him as well, probably a few days later since he was no longer sitting up.

As you might have guessed, my grampy died not long after; I count myself very fortunate that I have these precious memories! Funnily enough, I also remember teaching my younger sister to build a secure Lego foundation, in the same way, some years later. So in a way, Grampy taught both of us, even though he didn’t meet my sister.

What about you? Are your earliest memories something important, or something small? How old are you in your earliest memory? We’d love to hear your reminisces on the cards you write this month—and in the comments here too, if you like!

I love board games, and I know many of you do too. There’s something magical about getting friends around a table and trying to outsmart each other or collaborate towards a common objective. We laugh at unexpected twists, get the satisfaction of solving tricky puzzles and explore different worlds together… They’re brilliant!

So, for everyone who loves board games as well as postcards, Fenrir Boardgames is launching a new game that blends the best of both worlds—it’s a journey full of postcards, stamps and souvenirs, and it’s appropriately called Postcards!

The game invites you to hop on your bicycle and embark on a picturesque adventure through 13 different regions of metropolitan France. As you cycle through these iconic locations, your goal is to camp around France, sharing your travels by sending postcards and collecting souvenirs. The game contains beautiful design elements, including gorgeous postcards, Marianne-themed stamps and many other small markers. I have a soft spot for board games with lots of little tokens, and all these look sturdy and well-finished.

We received an advance copy to give the game a try and thoroughly enjoyed playing it. At first, we were too focused on just sending postcards 😅… but quickly realized the different layers of strategy one can apply to get points and thus win the game. You can use the different types of camping sites to gather bonuses and also collect souvenirs, all with their own perks. Each game takes between 30 and 45 minutes, and up to 4 people can play together. And there’s also a solo mode!

I wish they sold the postcards separately though, in a usable format — they’re so nice! 😍 It truly makes you want to travel to France to visit these places one by one.

Currently live on Kickstarter, Fenrir is seeking support to bring the Postcards game to life. The campaign runs until February 10, and by backing it, you’ll not only get your hands on a copy later this year, but also support a game that resonates with our shared love for postcards and adventure. Check out the Kickstarter campaign to learn more and consider supporting this exciting endeavor.

Happy gaming nights!