Well Santa must have taken the wise advice to heart and worked hard to beat Canada Post’s Christmas mailing deadline as his ‘Special Surprise Delivery’ arrived in early December presumably to avoid the rush. There sitting on the counter at the local post office was a cheerful looking display full of my favorite Christmas candy--Turtles. The display held a number of packages each containing four chocolate and caramel candies.

For your convenience Canada Post affixed a $1.29 mint stamp on the sleeves ready to mail the delightful taste samples. This stamp appears to be in addition to the listing already declared and printed for 2012. As the Christmas season is still within memory one would expect the theme to be of a holiday nature, right? Then you’d be very surprised to find the image featured is that of an endangered species--a Turtle--endangered because after the holidays the product will have been consumed they will not likely reappear until the next Christmas season. That is the problem with Turtles, here briefly for the holidays, then . . . gone!

Santa’s elves with help from staff at the candy factory must have put in many long, hard hours at the North Pole to produce these many packages of Turtle treats in time for the big event. Each one needed to be carefully shaped to represent that delicious gooey treat and then dipped in rich chocolate--Turtles are particular!.

As I see it it didn’t matter whether stamp collectors were good little boys and girls or not as long as they could scrape up the five bucks to buy a package, each person is treated with the same courtesy! Should you be planning to surprise your philatelic friends with a little gift at this season perhaps these Turtles are the ideal solution. The problem then is how to ship the package. If you are delivering by hand there is no difficulty--just remember to stand close by when the package is opened. Occasionally people like to share their gifts, and besides they do taste good!

If you are planning on sending by mail take my advice, ignore the stamp, and wrap the whole in plain brown paper the reason being in the event of the small parcel losing its way and possibly getting stuck to sticky fingers. The brightly colored wrapper is a dead giveaway.

I’m not sure whether Canada Post expects you to risk them in the mail as there is always a chance of the chocolate melting although that may not be too serious given the normal weather at this time of year.

A slight problem might have to be faced when they arrive: Should the recipient happen to be a candy lover he/she might eat the contents and throw away the wrapper--a disaster. A philatelist would probably throw away the candy and save the stamp. However in a few cases like my own I eat the candy and then save the stamp--a win-win situation!

The postman assured me this is a genuine stamp from Canada Post and quite possibly should receive a number in the catalogue sometime in the future. I felt justified in having him place a cancel on the stamp even though I had no intention of mailing and as a result felt no twinge of conscience as I devoured the candy. Besides left in the container mounting in my stamp album could be a very sticky operation!