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Ever heard of crochet postbox toppers?
I definitely hadn’t before moving to the UK, but over the past few years, knitted postbox toppers like this one have been popping up all across the country.
They’re adorable, they add a pop of color and fun to local villages and even big cities, and there is no official organization that does them – just people from their homes or from crochet or knitting groups.
So I thought I’d do a little research into what in the world they are and how it all got started, so if you’ve also ever wondered or seen one of these “in the wild” across the UK, here we go!
Want to watch this content rather than reading it? Check out my YouTube video on it!
What is yarnbombing?
First things first, the concept of “yarnbombing” is essentially a type of cute graffiti that uses yarn instead of something like paint, and it began really as a way to reclaim ugly or cold public places and make them more colorful and welcoming.
It’s thought to have started in the US, in Texas specifically, when a woman from Houston named Magda covered a door handle with a knitted cover.
But then you’ve got other people like an artist in Houston who was already doing crochet-covered objects in the 1990s, so it’s hard to pinpoint the exact start.
Generally, though, it’s accepted that it started in the US.
When did the UK start making knitted postbox toppers?
Of course, they weren’t doing postbox bonnets or crochet toppers in the US because that is a very British thing.
The crochet post box toppers, according to Royal Mail themselves, started to pop up around 2012.
According to them, it was around the holiday season (or festive season as they called it – Americans would say holiday season) – with Christmas themed toppers.
Here are some of the most adorable Christmas themed toppers I could find!
Then, it started moving into other important times of the year like Easter with Spring themed toppers.
And then, years later, in the pandemic, when everyone was home learning to crochet, the trend got even bigger and suddenly postbox toppers were dotting up everywhere.
According to this article, 2022 was actually one of the biggest years yet for the craze and it hasn’t really slowed down.
Craft groups across the UK get together to make them together, or individual people who love to crochet will just sit in their homes and make them for their local postbox.
Some of them are more simple, but some are absolutely insane in how good they are.
Does Royal Mail approve of knitted postbox toppers?
Royal Mail are actually in favor of it and like what it brings to the community.
They ask, of course, that nothing is done to permanently alter the postbox and also that nothing obstructs the slot for the mail or the postman from collecting the mail, but as long as the designs are fun and cute and not making some large political or social statement, they’re totally on board with it.
Which is a very British thing, I feel, because I cannot imagine USPS feeling the same way if people were to put crocheted toppers on top of their mail collection boxes.
Do people ever steal knitted crochet toppers?
Now another question – does anyone ever steal the toppers?
Unfortunately those types of people do exist in the world and recent comments in Facebook groups like this one suggest that this is becoming more of a problem with people who clearly do not know how to live in a civilized society or not be total jerks are making a game out of stealing toppers.
But overall, it’s not so rampant of a problem that it’s not worth doing them – plenty are in small villages or rural areas that see very little crime, including postbox topper theft, and the others – well, they just put a new topper on because you can’t let the bad guys win.
UK Postbox Toppers Facebook groups
There are actually quite a few groups dedicated to this pillar box crochet madness, including the “UK Post Box Toppers and More Group” which has over 81,000 members.
People post and share about the ones they’ve seen or the ones they’ve put up themselves, and it’s basically the most wholesome thing I’ve seen all year.
Another point – while I did say that typically these toppers are neutral in their statement, ie, mostly just cute scenes, they have been used in support of the NHS workers during the pandemic as well as for the monarchy during the Platinum Jubilee and as well as the Coronation recently, but these are generally well-respected and accepted things to celebrate in the UK and were quite topical, temporary displays.
Other names for the people who crochet these toppers include yarn bombers, as well as Wooly delinquents.