Sarah Moran

Welcome to the happiest Christmas!

Remember the days of sending Christmas cards? Sending and receiving them made people so happy. Getting snail mail has largely become a thing of the past but we're bringing it back with the happiest Christmas.

Earlier this year I travelled to Bhutan and made the most amazing discovery. You can put your own picture on the postage stamps to send mail from Bhutan!



This year I want to get everyone I know back into the Christmas card sending spirit. Put your face on the stamp and say Happy Christmas from Bhutan!

I am going to send my friends photos of me on the Christmas Cards I send but you could also send cards with your friend's pic on the front.

Here is my friend Ross Hill on a set of stamps:


Not every stamp can be used on the postcards and I would love to do an art display of the spare stamps both here and in Bhutan. Imagine a real life profile pic wall featuring all the happy people this Christmas. As I am based in Melbourne it would likely happen somewhere in Victoria, and I would plan to host something in Bhutan.

I want to be able to pay my tour guide Arun to go to the post office and produce the stamps, then put the cards together for postage and make sure that process goes smoothly.

Essentially this project will run on a cost-recovery basis. The reason I have set a project goal is to ensure a critical mass of happiness - hardly worth celebrating if I only end up sending two cards!

This is Arun after he guided me to the Bird's nest:


I was very happy:

It's quite possible that we have too many cards for Arun to handle - but there's a high youth unemployment rate in Bhutan and I would love nothing more than to be able to offer a "Christmas casual" job to some young Bhutanese people.

It's also possible that the cards may not arrive before Christmas - but hopefully they will and I will be explicit that this is a risk. If you don't have a backup present prepared for your mum on Christmas Day it is at your own risk!

This is a relatively straightforward project but as with all projects occurring internationally and for the first time - you don't know what you don't know!