And today - 6th of December - also happens to be the day after 'Pakjesavond' ('gifts eve', Saint Nicholas' Eve), in the Netherlands the main evening in the Sinterklaas celebration. In this evening people give each other presents, accompanied by a personal poem and sometimes packed in a funny, mostly personalized way.
To be short: today in the Netherlands many children are playing with their new toys and/or games. An excellent day for this choice of theme!
I'll start with an older Europe (CEPT) stamp from Belgium.
Lucky me, I got it from a kind colleague, who had cut-out some stamps years before to give one day to someone interested, and apparently I was one of a few interested.
The stamps, issued in 1989, show marbles ('knikker' in Dutch :-) ) and remind me of playing with marbles in my childhood time. Nowadays marbles still are sold in toy stores, but I hardly (or: never) see children play with them... We have marbles at home but also my kids ignore them...
Talking about Europe, this year (2015) the Europa stamps' theme was 'old toys', so many countries have issued stamps on this theme!
See this website for all countries' contributions.
I received the Spanish stamp, a wooden train pictured, which in real smells a bit after wood:
The Dutch stamp was part of this stamp sheet, of which the other stamp shows the board game 'Mens-erger-je-niet!' ('man, don't feel annoyed!', in English better known as Ludo):
Meanwhile Dutch PostNL also has issued a stamp sheet on toys of today. Well, the Rubik's cube has celebrated his 40th birthday last year, and the game console might have newer versions nowadays :-)
In contrary to marbles, at least our son didn't ignore the cube, fortunately. And did you know that there even are international Rubik's cube (and other cubes) competitions?
See more great toys stamps on and via the Sunday Stamps blog post of today.
I like the robot stamp, and even more the robot zapping the die with his red laser eyes in the selvage.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenAnd I'm enjoying my Dutch lesson for the day - knikker is a great word, 'knik' is exactly the sound a marble makes when it hits another one.
In Spanish, the word is "canica" :D
VerwijderenMarbles are real blast for the past for me. Playing marbles was a major playground activity at my primary school during the war. I saw that a young boy recently completed the Rubik cube in around 5 seconds.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenNice to see marbles on a stamp. Somehow I've still got mine from my childhood although the drawstring bag I used to keep them in has long gone.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenI used to play a lot with marbles, especially with my cousin. Me too, I like to see them on a stamp.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenAnd I have received the robot from you, I love it! I didn't posted it because of the teddy bears (and because I guessed you would post it!).