The release of new Holiday Stamps is eagerly anticipated each year. These beautiful commemoratives add a special touch to your holiday cards and Christmas cards. Here are the new choices for the 2009 holiday season.

Borders of trees, stars, wreaths and holly trim these four images featuring a reindeer, snowman, gingerbread man, and toy soldier on this fun holiday assortment. Colorful and charming, each brings a feeling of vintage holiday enjoyment. Stamp artist Joseph Cudd, of Greensboro, NC, created these designs.

This traditional Christmas stamp continues the Madonna and Child theme used since 1978. This year a painting by Italian artist Giovanni Battista Salvi (1609-1685), more commonly known as Sassoferrato is featured. The painting is currently housed at Hearst Castle in California and this stamp celebrates the 400th anniversary of the birth of the artist.

A musical angel with a lute is taken from a fragment of a circa 1480 fresco. The original fragment is 37” x 46” and housed in the Vatican art museum. The artist, Melozzo da Forli (1438-1494) is considered to be one of the great fresco artists of his day. His depictions of musical angels have enjoyed a newfound popularity today.

This year Hanukkah begins on December 11 with 8 days and nights of celebration. This 2009 Hanukkah design features a photograph of a menorah designed by Lisa Regan of the Garden Deva Sculpture Company in Tulsa, OK, and was photographed by Ira Wexler of Braddock Heights, MD. Hanukkah is the Hebrew word for “dedication.” Blue and silver are the customary colors used in celebrating this holiday.

Kwanzaa is a non-religious holiday rooted in African traditions. Celebrated from December 26 to January 1, this colorful stamp by Lloyd McNeill of New York richly depicts the essence of family and a bountiful harvest. The first Kwanzaa commemorative stamp was issued in 1997. This is the third stamp design to celebrate this particular holiday.

These stamps were announced on December 29, 2008, when the U.S. Postal Services previews their stamps for the coming year. At that time a first class stamp was 42¢. You can be assured that they will reflect the increased rate of 44¢ when they are released for this holiday season.

I recently received a survey from the U.S. Postal Department asking for my opinion on their plan to do away with Saturday mail delivery. I’m not sure I would miss it as a consumer but bet it would be problematic for many businesses.

The post office contends they have been very aggressive at cutting costs but project financial losses for this year and for several years to come. We all know the price of stamps has increasingly risen, as has the price of mail delivery at any level. Of course, a significant decline in volume would be expected, and without the volume of mail, your operating budget stays the same but with less money coming in. And what about their other money concern that a “major requirement to prefund its retiree’s health benefits” has also contributed to their losses.

As an alternative to even larger price increases, this transition from a six to a five day delivery schedule is being seriously considered. The key components of the five-day plan include:

- No Saturday delivery to homes and businesses.
- No mail collection on Saturday.
- Maintain Saturday delivery for Post Office Box mail.
- Post Offices currently open on Saturday will remain open.
- Maintain delivery of Express Mail on Saturday and Sunday.
- Continue to make available remittance mail, caller service mail and national firm hold out mail at plants on Saturday.

What do you think? How would this plan affect you or your business?

Commemorative stamps are quite popular among collectors and those who simply like to dress up their mailed greeting cards, bills and more. Based on the total number of stamps saved, but not necessary used, here is the Top 10 List of United States Postal Service most popular commemorative stamps.

Each year the Postal Service receives suggestions from the general public regarding commemoratives. The narrow the search, the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee was formed and a 12 point criteria for selection was implemented. The Postmaster General makes the final decision on which stamps to launch each year.
What commemorative stamp would you want to see added?

I recently asked my husband to pick up some first class stamps when he was out and about, and this is what came home!

Who knew The Simpsons would be immortalized on U.S. Postage Stamps! I certainly hadn’t heard and now I have Homer, Marge, Lisa, Maggie and Bart to deal with whenever I send out greeting cards, bill payments or anything through the mail! I’m not sure how I missed this important new stamp launch, but in case you did too, here is a recap.

Launched on May 7, 2009, the 44¢ first class stamps are quite bright and bold and sure to be noticed! They launched with quite a bit of fanfare including a poll to vote for your favorite Simpson character, which was won by Maggie with 29.7% of the 916,000 ballots cast. Homer, who was favored initially, came in with 28.8% of the vote with Bart at 18.9%. The television series launched in 1990 is the longest running primetime comedy in television history.
“Ay, Carumba!” is all I can say!

In response to the recent blog posting regarding a Michael Jackson Commemorative Stamp, we received this interesting comment from a CardsDirect Blog reader:

Although previously the waiting period for a person to be on a postage stamp after their death was 15 years (Ex. Elvis Presley’s stamp came out in 1992, 15 years after his death), exceptions have been made. Commemorative stamps were made for President John F. Kennedy after his assassination in 1963, and Roberto Clemente, who played for the Pittsburgh Pirates, after he was killed in a plane crash in 1973 while delivering supplies from his native Puerto Rico to Nicaragua after the country was struck by an earthquake.
Although many people may or may not have liked Michael, I would not be surprised if President Barack Obama waives the rule for deceased people to be on postage stamps and commissions a stamp or a series of stamps to honor the memory of Michael Jackson. My proposal would be four stamps, representing the various stages of his career (as a youth in the late 1960s/early 1970s, the teenage years of the late 1970s/early 1980s, the “Thriller” album era [the most successful pop album of all time], and either the “Bad” album era or the later years). However, some people still have ill feelings of Michael Jackson after the child molestation charges he faced (although he was found not guilty).

Be it this year, 2014, or whenever, I believe there will be a stamp honoring “The King of Pop”, Michael Jackson.

In years past the waiting period for a commemorative stamp following someone’s death (other than a U.S. President) was 15 years. It was then changed to 10 and is currently at five years. Of course, there are always exceptions to any rule and perhaps this individual will prompt such an exception as our reader suggests. What do you think?