So, you know how the Olympics is this really big event where lots of athletes from all over the world come together to compete in different sports, right? Well, in 2012, the Olympics was held in London, which is in the United Kingdom.
Now, when an athlete wins a gold medal at the Olympics, it's a really big accomplishment for them and their country. So, in the United Kingdom, they wanted to do something special to celebrate their athletes who won gold medals.
They came up with an idea to paint post boxes in the athlete's hometowns gold. A post box is like a big metal mailbox where people put letters to send to their friends or family.
So, if an athlete was from a town or city in the United Kingdom and they won a gold medal at the Olympics, they would paint the post box in their hometown gold. This way, everyone in the town could see and celebrate the athlete's amazing accomplishment.
It was kind of like a way to say, "Hey, look at how awesome our athlete is! They won a gold medal at the Olympics and we're so proud of them!"
And that's how the 2012 Olympics gold post boxes came to be. It was just a fun way for the United Kingdom to show support for their amazing athletes who worked really hard to win gold medals at the Olympics.