Christmas card stamps cut by 5p

The special stamps can only be used for Christmas cards

Reduced-rate stamps can be used to post Christmas cards in Guernsey.

But the 29 pence stamps, which went on sale on last week, must be used by the end of this week, Guernsey Post said.

The company said it hoped encouraging people to post local cards now would ease the burden when UK mail started arriving in the run-up to Christmas.

The deadline for sending airmail to Japan, the USA, Canada and eastern Europe is also drawing near, with post needing to be sent by Wednesday.

'Extremely busy'

Guernsey Post said it processed and delivered 445,000 local Christmas cards during the reduced rate stamp posting week in 2007.

Operations Director Boley Smillie said: "December is an extremely busy period for us.

"We are expecting a peak in the volume of letter mail coming from the UK in the following week and the reduced rate posting week enables us to ensure that local card mail is posted and delivered before this peak period."

The 29 pence stamps are valid until 12 December, 5 pence cheaper than the standard rates for cards, but cannot be used for bills, letter post or business mail, Guernsey Post said.