Not surprisingly, from December 1, 2025, to the day this article is being published, not a single Christmas or New Year card landed in my post office box. Some years ago, that would have been enough to send someone to a fortune teller, or an abisaa shrine, to find out what evil spirit was behind the grievous misfortune of a cardless year-end!
Fortunately, I’m not alone in this predicament! Still, more on that later.
It seems there’s a general, perhaps unwritten, convention about a new year: START ON A POSITIVE NOTE! That way, hopefully, the rest of the year will continue with favourable experiences, and achievements.
Unquestionably, the belief in the influence of a positive January is the reason why December 31st Watch Night church services, are always filled to capacity. It’s considered an opportunity for answered prayers, that whatever negatives have had people in their clutches will let go and make way for better times.
Doubtless that is also the main reason why towards year end, self-proclaimed prophets, seers, diviners, soothsayers and fortune tellers, aim to grab headlines with all sorts of prophesies about the coming year. But, unfortunately, most of them are messages of doom, mostly targeting public figures.
Curious that the prophecies are never about good tidings, such as, ‘Mr. X’ or ‘Ms. Y’ will win the lottery in this New Year; or, there will be a bumper fish harvest in the country.
Little wonder that in recent years, commendably, the Ghana Police Service, notably under former IGP Dr George Akuffo Dampare, has been issuing warnings about the possible ‘counter-back’ consequences of causing prophetic year-end fear and panic.
Anyway, I believe it’s not for nothing that the predominant word associated with a new year is ‘HAPPY’. It may consist of only five letters, but that word has a heavy assignment, as it sums up all the aspirations, everybody’s prayers for positives, the realisation of dreams, no matter how ambitious. Above all, A HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Regarding the aforementioned New Year convention, alas, it seems that Ghana’s Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), didn’t sign up for that.
Otherwise, why start the New Year with the most unwelcome announcement about electricity and water: “2026 – 2030 Major Tariff Review Decision, Effective January1, 2026”? To borrow a popular line from Nigerian movies, “who does that?!”
PURC, I believe I speak for many when I state that we’re not hoodwinked by the ‘2030’! Our concern is the ‘here and now’. The unambiguous “effective January 1, 2026” is our ‘beef’! For now, 2030 is a long way off, and we’ll know how to cross that bridge when we get there!
When the year begins on such a dire note, conceivably, as a humorous pidgin expression puts it, “better no go follow”! Not forgetting that schools re-opening headache, too, is awaiting parents and guardians.
Surely, people should be allowed to commence a new year at least smiling! I seem to recall that in the good old days, folks were allowed to begin a new year with some joy, any revised cost of living shocks were tactically scheduled for later.
But then so many changes in our lives, some dramatic, others slowly creeping up on us. And because it’s the season, I return to the matter of printed, old fashioned Christmas and New Year cards – and I believe my empty post box experience was that of others, too.
These days, it seems nobody even expects an old-fashioned physical, card, whether for birthdays or Christmas, sent through the post office, by ‘snail mail’. Indeed, it’s such a rarity that anyone receiving one would be both gratified and puzzled.
Needless to say, I confess that not only did my post box not receive any Christmas cards, I didn’t post a single one, either!
In the present high-tech, digital world, the now ‘not-so-new’ normal is online greeting cards, sent by WhatsApp and other internet platforms. Of course, the benefit of the electronic cards is the speed with which they can be sent – and shared. An online card one receives, can also be ‘stolen’ and forwarded to others as one’s own greeting, as I did countless times.
Notably, the creativity of some of the online cards is simply awesome, whether they’re silent, well-crafted messages, or accompanied by audio, evergreen Christmas carols. Sheer works of art, some of them!
I can remember a time when I would receive so many Christmas cards that mounting a display of them was an essential part of the season. So, there would be strings crisscrossing my sitting-room, on which the cards were strung for Christmas visitors to admire.
Furthermore, of course Christmas cards etiquette dictated that a recipient should in turn send a Christmas or New Year card to the sender by post. The heavy cards and parcels mail in December globally, was the reason why there were frustrating delivery delays, necessitating in some countries post office campaigns urging people to post early to avoid the Christmas rush.
Sadly, the capture of the Christmas cards trade from post offices is not the only misfortune that digitalisation has caused.
Apart from job losses and income shortfalls, the decline in the traditional postal patronage, the digital capture of the terrain also has other side effects: postal services are having to find innovative ways of staying in business; and, seemingly, now only people of a certain age know how a postage stamp is fixed on an envelope!
It can also be imagined that very soon a school leaving examination will feature the question, ‘what is/was a postage stamp?’!
More disturbing, a trend of post offices throwing in the towel appears to be beginning. One of the compelling news items that ended the year 2025, was a report that Denmark has stopped its regular postal/letter delivery services altogether – ending a centuries old service.
As reported by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Tuesday, December 30, 2025:
“Denmark becomes first country in world to end letter delivery
“Denmark's postal service has ended its letter delivery service after 401 years in operation.
“PostNord told the ABC there has been a "major decline" in letter sending in favour of electronic means of communication.
“The move makes Denmark the first country in the world to end its letter delivery service.
“Emails, (direct messages) and text messages have mostly replaced the old-fashioned post.
“It is the first country in the world to decide physical letters are no longer essential or economically viable,” the ABC reported.
Given the state of declining postal patronage worldwide, I’m wondering how philatelists are coping, the people whose passion is collecting postage stamps. Also, if people no longer send letters through the post, then where is the incentive for stamp designers to create beautiful postage stamps? I recall that in the past, Ghana’s stamps always attracted international acclaim.
Britain’s Royal Mail used to be cited as the world standard for postal efficiency, but in recent years that title has become questionable.
For example, my copy of the November 16, 2024 issue of The Week magazine, a UK publication I subscribe to, arrived in my post box at Dansoman Estate on December 11, 2025, having been received at the Accra General Post Office’s ‘Stamping Table’ on December 10, 2025! Thus, apparently, it had spent more than a year in transit from London to Accra!
Out of curiosity, I checked on record postal delays and what I found showed that my one-year hold up pales into complete insignificance against a delay of an astounding 89 years!!!
“According to the Guinness World Records:
“The longest time elapsed between a letter being posted and its delivery is 89 years. In 2008, Jane Barrett, a guest-house owner in Weymouth, Dorset, UK, received the letter – an RSVP to a Boxing Day party invitation, which had been posted on 29 November 1919.
“The message inside read: “Dear Percy, Many thanks for the invitation, be delighted. See you on the 26th December. Regards Buffy,” and was delivered in a plastic bag with a note from the Royal Mail apologizing for any damage – but offering no explanation for the inordinately long delay.”
All I can say is that this offers material for a book or a movie!
By the way, did any of Ghana’s soothsayers prophesy about the PURC’s New Year tariff review? I’m just wondering!
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