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Christmas at Roskilde Post Office


By Christina Bramsnæs

Illuminated by street lamps and glittering Christmas decorations a soft white layer of snow has covered the country. We are back in the 1950’s and Denmark is busy preparing for the great feast.


"Ordinarily we had no radio at the post office, but on the occasion of Christmas we were allowed to set up a radio so that we could keep abreast of what happened outside the post office. One year a colleague had brought a gramophone so that we could hear some pop music. That year it was fashionable to send Christmas cards that were actually records. We played them before sorting them".

The charming quotation sounds almost like something out of an idyllic old Morten Korch film, but it originates from retired head postman Poul Erik Stokholm who started as cycling postman in 1952. Three years ago he gave the museum an article describing the grind with the Christmas mail of that time. The article had been written in 1992 for the house organ of Roskilde Postkontor "Kreds Nyt" [District News] and was illustrated by pictures taken in 1955 or 1956 of higher grade postman Poul Andersen. Extracts of the article are published in the following:

Everybody lends a hand
Like today, Christmas was a time when family and friends were in the centre. It was not very common to have a telephone so Christmas cards were an important contact with the family far and near: "Everybody sent Christmas mail back then. It was not unusual that each household sent and received about 15-20 Christmas cards in average. The parcel office was also busy. The number of parcels was also very high as Christmas parcels for family and friends were to be sent. If people were travelling at Christmas time, they often sent the presents in advance as it was impossible to bring along parcels and baggage in the overcrowded Christmas trains".

On the other hand, private persons were also helping the post office. Vans were not introduced in the rural districts until 1960 and consequently the many Christmas parcels presented a problem to the village postmen. In Roskilde the inhabitants of the rural parishes solved the problem themselves: "The village postmen could only carry limited quantities of mail on their bicycles. Villagers who owned cars would therefore come and drive the village postman around on his route so that he could deliver all the mail. Ordinarily the village postmen only carried small parcels on their bikes, and only to the extent that it was secure, but before Christmas everything had to be delivered as there was no time to collect parcels at the post office".

All sorting was done by hand and it was therefore necessary to use all personnel in order to have the mail delivered on time. "We were at the post office day and night, only interrupted by a few hours’ sleep. Sometimes our abandoned wives would come around with some home baking for our coffee. When that happened, we had the opportunity to take a much-needed break".

Although it was undoubtedly hard work to deliver the Christmas mail before the mechanization of the 1960’s, Poul Erik Stokholms narrative evokes nostalgia to present-day eyes, maybe because today’s development has made communication more impalpable and abstract. The narrative calls to mind the hard-working postman of DR’s Advent calendar from 1973 "Vinterbyøster" [East Wintertown] whose song ends with the following verse:

"East Wintertown,
Yes, East Wintertown
is where I am the postman.
I think I have worked myself blue in the face,
but never mind for now at last it’s Christmas
and oh what a comfort that is
in East Wintertown
where I’m the postman."

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