Post box or mail box…
Up for discussion today is what do you call it, a post box or a mail box, plus a fantastic way of sharing all the different variations around the globe.
Jessica from The Open Home posted this blue beauty above. Any guesses where she is from?
If you have read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society you will be thrilled to know that Jessica is from Guernsey. She shares, “I tend to use this post box right outside my church. Although Guernsey is a British island, we do not have red Royal Mail boxes like the UK, as we have our own postal system here, called Guernsey Post.”
Post Box
I recently came across a hashtag on Instagram, #postboxinmycountry, started by PiscoLetters . She was curious about other postboxes in other countries and thought that if anyone wanted to share their country’s postbox, they could post to this hashtag so everyone could see. What fun!
The above red tower-like post box is similar to the one PiscoLetters posted as she waited for her bus in Thailand.
Mail box
In Canada I’ve only ever heard people refer to a mail box, and it would seem that the term postbox or post box is largely British in origin. Either way these containers of sorts are delightful no matter what we call them. Above is my own community mailbox provided by Canada Post.
Please weigh in, do you use the term mail box, post box, or something else?
This discussion is endless…!
http://mailadventures.blogspot.com/2012/12/mail-words-13.html
Oh, my. Endless, yet fascinating discussion. Love those comments.
Fun post, Barb. As you probably know, the USA uses mail boxes too. Ours are becoming quite scarce, I think. I live in a rural area and we may leave our stamped outgoing mail in our personal mailbox although we frequently use a drive up box in the grocery store parking lot.
Hi there Elaine, Thanks for your comment. So, just so I am understanding, in the USA you can leave a piece of mail (with stamp already on it) in your personal mailbox and the carrier with take it with them when they drop off your incoming mail? I have forgotten about that, it is the same here in rural Canada too. In more urban centers we take the stamped mail to the closest community mailbox or postal outlet (usually in a pharmacy/drugstore.
You are correct in your understanding of the rural system, Barb.
We do have things similar to the picture you posted of your own box. They are sometimes located in apartment or condominium or town house complexes. In the city, most mail is still delivered to each home. It seems to be a complicated system, now that I try to think through it all!
We have Post Office buildings for each “zip code”. Within many of them, you can rent a “box” and pick up your mail there. That is also where one usually mail packages (using the postal system) or buy special postage: foreign mailings or special handling, etc. Now, we can purchase postage on line, although I have not done so.
Package mailing is a competitive business with private companies competing with the U.S.P.S. (U.S. Postal Service – just to be more complicated 😉 )
Thanks for the share! We definitely use the word post box over here in Britain, many of my friends also say ‘happy post’ instead of ‘happy mail.’
Ahh, thank you Jessica, for allowing me to share this fun and fascinating discussion. Love the term ‘happy post,’ I could definitely switch over to that! 😉