Yes, just noticed that on the Martin Lewis article it says '
4 March 2022: Royal Mail has confirmed that you can continue to use Christmas stamps after 31 January 2023 following a U-turn. The postal service had initially announced, as part of a wider shake-up, that Christmas stamps would be replaced by new barcoded versions from 31 January 2023. This would have rendered old festive stamps useless unless swapped. But while new barcoded versions of Christmas stamps will be launched later this year, non-barcoded versions will now remain valid. ' So it seems that the Royal Mail have now made a U turn. Excellent, it is the sensible thing to do. All this was news to me, just browsing ML for something else when it caught my attention.