Christmas Island, Nova Scotia

The original inhabitants of the land, the Miꞌkmaq people, called the area Abadakwichéch, which means "the small reserved portion.

He was soon followed by other MacNeils from Scotland, attracted by reports of the good agricultural farmland that was available, as well as the nearby fish stocks in the Bras d’Or Lake.

The new St. Barra Roman Catholic church was consecrated on 22 July 1883, and a League of the Cross Hall was completed in October 1908.

The parishioners maintain that a nineteenth-century deed names the church's trustees as its rightful owner.

Greeting cards and packages come from as far as Hong Kong, Seoul, Paris, Mexico City, Sydney, Tahiti and various points across Canada and the United States from collectors and holiday enthusiasts to be franked with the official postmark of Christmas Island.

[13][14] Each year the post office mails out from 12,000 to 14,000 Christmas cards hand-stamped with the special postmark.

Canada Post agreed to the request, creating a postmark with a simple motif with three conifers.