Celebrate the World Postcard Day
There’s nothing quite like the joy of finding a surprise postcard in your mailbox, and the goal for the World Postcard Day is to bring that joy to as many people as possible. Grab some postcards and stamps, and make a plan to celebrate this special means of communication on October 1st. Here are some ideas to get you started.
Send a postcard!
The easiest way to celebrate postcards is to use them! Make some time to send postcards to:
- All your relatives! Parents and grandparents are the obvious choice, but you can also send postcards to those family members who might live far away, or whom you especially cherish and can’t wait to see again.
- Children, some of whom might not yet have had the pleasure of finding a piece of mail just for them in their mailbox… you can be the first to surprise them!
- Elderly people in local nursing homes, who could use some cheering up in these times of social isolation.
- Teachers and mentors. Tell them about the lasting impact they’ve had on your life, or the important lessons you remember.
- Catch up with friends you haven’t seen in a while. Let them know how you’re doing and that you’re thinking about them.
- Show your support for good causes. Some organizations you might want to write to include Post Pals, More Love Letters, or From Me to You.
- Celebrate the day by hosting an event, such as a postcard-writing get-together with friends, or organizing a visit to a postal museum.
- Join Postcrossing and send a postcard to someone across the world.
Print the official postcard (2026)
The official World Postcard Day 2026 was designed by Oce and celebrates this year's theme “Paper Bridges”.
The design is available free of charge, so you can have it printed at a local print shop or through an online printing service, such as vistaprint.com or moo.com.
World Postcard Day - Official Postcard 2026 - image side (RGB).jpg
World Postcard Day - Official Postcard 2026 - writing side (RGB).jpg
World Postcard Day - Official Postcard 2026.pdf
The postcard design is provided under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license (in short: no commercial use, no changes, keep the credits).
We've also created a black-and-white outline version for kids (and kids at heart!) to print on uncoated pater and color by hand. Like the original design, it's provided under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license, so please color away on paper, but don't alter or remix the file itself.
World Postcard Day - Official Postcard 2026 - Outline - image side (RGB).jpg
World Postcard Day - Official Postcard 2026 - Outline - writing side (RGB).jpg
World Postcard Day - Official Postcard 2026 - Outline.pdf
In the Classroom
If you’re a teacher or educator, we encourage you to help your students discover the joys of mail and postcards on the World Postcard Day. They can write their first postcards and learn more about how mail works with interactive activities that can be adapted to the subject being taught and the grade level.
We’ve prepared a flexible lesson plan that can be adapted to the grades and subjects you teach. You can download it here:
Lesson Plan - World Postcard Day.pdf (English)
Also available in: Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Lithuanian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.
Libraries
Consider recommending books about mail throughout October! Here are some suggestions for epistolary novels or other books that feature postcards or mail prominently.
Also, if you have some exhibition space, invite a local collector or postcard society to showcase their postcards. Perhaps they can help make a display with their favorite postcards, or tell a story of your town through these postcards!
If you have some unwritten postcards you’d like to share with your community, we encourage you to make a postcard basket for library visitors. You can use these printable templates to entice visitors to take a postcard home with them:
A4 size: white background
A4 size: colored background
Letter size: white background
Letter size: colored background
Museums
If you have postcards in your collections, the World Postcard Day is the perfect day to showcase them! Make a commemorative display or, if it’s safe to do so, organize a tour or workshop around the theme.
Spread the word
Help us spread the word about the World Postcard Day! Tell your friends, family, and colleagues — everyone is invited to join. Even better, consider telling them on a postcard, so they know immediately why receiving postcards is great.
Would you like to use the logo of the event? Good news: you can! The World Postcard Day Logo is available under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. This means you are free to copy and redistribute it in any medium or format, as long as you don't change it and include an attribution to "worldpostcardday.com". Also, we really, really would love to know how you are using it and/or how you are spreading the word about the event. If you use it, please drop us a quick line about it or share it on social media with #WorldPostcardDay.
Please keep in mind that this license does not cover commercial use or making derivative works. For those, please reach out to us first.
World Postcard Day Logo