25 Dec 2025
If you’ve ever stopped in your tracks in St Albans because a postbox has suddenly sprouted dinosaurs, street food, or a family of knitted characters, you’re not alone. And you’re definitely not imagining things.
Behind every St Albans Postbox topper is a crafter with a vision, a stash of yarn that never seems to shrink, and a lot of quiet hours turning ideas into woolly reality. We asked a handful of the crafters involved to share a few details.
Yve: Where Dinosaurs, Trains and Missed Stops Collide
For Yve, the time it takes to make a topper depends entirely on what’s involved. Her Dino Party topper was a slow-burn masterpiece, started back in January and finally finished in June – and that was while juggling plenty of other projects along the way. On average, a topper might use around ten balls of wool, although she’s quick to point out that leftover yarn plays a starring role… even if her stash never seems to reduce, and the “right” colours are always missing.
Some of the strangest places her knitting has happened? A train into London and a bus on the Isle of Wight. One particularly focused session resulted in her missing her stop entirely – so absorbed was she in the rhythm of needles and yarn. Fellow passengers, meanwhile, were often transfixed. As one observer put it:
“It’s magic watching something grow on two bits of wood.”
Shelly Healy: The Long Game (and a Secret Eiffel Tower Cameo)
Shelly’s creative process starts early – planning begins around March or April – but the actual crocheting waits until September. After all, making Christmas decorations in the height of summer just feels wrong to her. From first idea to finished topper, her creations typically span eight or nine months, using around eight balls of yarn (not always to the bitter end).
Shelly is fiercely committed to secrecy. Her toppers stay under wraps until the big reveal, which means almost all the work is done quietly at home. Almost. This summer, she did crochet at the top of the Eiffel Tower – just not the topper. Some secrets must remain sacred.
HK Crew: Stitching Culture, Community and Creativity Together
For the HK Crew, postbox toppers are about more than decoration – they’re a way of sharing Hong Kong culture with the St Albans community.
Using Facebook to gather ideas, the group asked what themes resonated most with Hong Kong people. The final choices? Central, a must-visit destination, and Hong Kong’s vibrant street food scene – a rich blend of Cantonese, British and international influences.
Planning began in May, with 15 members crocheting from home over seven months. Many elements had no patterns to follow, so the group worked by eye and instinct, repeatedly creating and redoing everything from skyscrapers to tea house (Cha Chaan Teng) floor tiles. It was creative, challenging, and deeply satisfying. Seeing the finished toppers in place was an emotional moment – proof that imagination, teamwork and persistence really do pay off.
Clare Seldon’s “Family Tree”: Reuse, Reinvention and a Lot of Sewing
One of the most inventive additions this year is the new Family Tree, joining the much-loved Stick Man and Santa. Its secret ingredients? An upturned Shaken Cow milkshake cup and plastic bendy straws, sourced via the brilliant St Albans Reuse site!
This new element took about a week to complete, with the pattern made up on the fly and the leaves requiring plenty of patient sewing. The original base and figures date back to 2021 and took around three months to create. Since then, they’ve toured postboxes near local schools including Fleetville, Prae Wood, Wheatfields and Camp – with another school stop planned soon.
Every topper you see is the result of months of thought, quiet graft, problem-solving, laughter, and the occasional missed train stop. They’re not just decorations – they’re small acts of generosity, creativity and community spirit, stitched together one loop at a time.
