The post office last month unveiled a new stamp to commemorate Chanukah, as well as new stamps for Christmas and Kwanzaa.
The Chanukah stamp spells the holiday with an “H” and the second “K” appears in the silhouette of a dreidel. The first night of Chanukah this year is on Dec. 20.
“This year, for the first time, all of our holiday stamps are being issued as ‘forever’ stamps,” said Stephen Kearney, executive director of Stamp Services for the U.S. Postal Service. “These popular stamps rank among our best sellers, with 1.3 billion being sold from October to December last year. That amounts to one in every 10 stamps we sell for the year.”
This year’s Chanukah stamp (25 million were printed) is the fourth U.S. issuance to commemorate the holiday. The USPS issued its first Chanukah stamp — a stylized illustration of a menorah — in 1996. A design featuring an ornate dreidel followed in 2004, and a photograph of a menorah with all eight candles and the shamash lit was first released in 2009.
Art director Ethel Kessler worked with graphic designer Suzanne Kleinwaks of Falls Church, Va., to create this year’s Chanukah stamp. The eight shapes behind the letters are meant to symbolize the eight days and nights of the celebration, and each letter in the design is subtly tilted to mimic the movement of the dreidel as it twirls.
The stamps can be purchased at post offices nationwide or online at www.usps.com.
But all is not happy in the world of Chanukah stamps. Because a new design is issued only sporadically, Florida resident Ronald Scheiman, who runs the website www.hanukkahstampquest.com, says the USPS is biased against Chanukah.
He wants a new design issued every year and dismisses the government claim that there is a lack of interest. “Also, if a post office [near you] has a holiday display which does not include Hanukkah, let me know,” he advises on his website. — j. wire reports