It may be hard to believe in this electronic age, but more than 1.3 billion holiday cards are sent via snail mail each year in the United States — with Christmas cards accounting for around 60% of them. If you have not purchased your stamps yet, there’s a newly created Hanukkah stamp to choose from.
It was designed by Antonio Alcalá, art director for the United States Postal Service. Did you even know it had an art director? The design honors Alcalá’s heritage. His mother escaped Nazi Germany on the Kindertransport, the British-organized rescue effort of children from Nazi-controlled territory.
The stamp was unveiled in September at the Lillian and Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. Alcalá started working on the design in 2022, explaining that he wanted something simple but with meaning. While the Jewish menorah has flames, it does not have candles, which he says imply an aspect of faith.
This is not the first Hanukkah stamp to be unveiled. The inaugural design appeared in 1996, showcasing a stylized illustration of a menorah. A design featuring an ornate dreidel, a four-sided spinning top traditionally played with during the holiday, followed in 2004.
The Christmas stamp got a much earlier head start — the first was issued in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Nov. 1, 1962.
In 1997, the Postal Service issued the first Kwanzaa stamp, which depicted a colorful portrait of a Black family. It was followed in 2004 by another design featuring seven figures in colorful robes.
In case you were wondering, the price of a first-class forever stamp is 73 cents. It increased from 68 cents in July.
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