Holiday Joy Forever Stamps. 2024

About This Stamp
Celebrate the holidays with four stamps from the U.S. Postal Service. These festive, folk art-inspired stamps are sure to enliven your 2024 holiday mailings.

Share whimsical holiday greetings with Holiday Joy stamps from the U.S. Postal Service®.These festive stamps inspired by folk art create a modern graphic look. The 4 designs feature 2 traditionally shaped ornamentsready to hang; a vibrant poinsettia surrounded by greenery, and a blue flower centered against green leaves and delicatescrollwork.

With a color palette including red, green, blue, pink, yellow, and white, illustrator Michelle Muñoz channeled her love of Christmas, vintage ornaments, and Mexican folk art to create unique images of holiday decor: two traditionally shaped ornaments ready to hang; a vibrant poinsettia surrounded by greenery; and a whimsical blue flower centered against green leaves and delicate scrollwork.

These stamps capture the spirit of the season, celebrating both the traditional and contemporary aspects of holiday festivities.

The Holiday Joy stamps, meanwhile, offer a vibrant and festive option for holiday greetings, with designs that evoke the joy and warmth of the holiday season.

Art director Antonio Alcalá desianed the stamps using original digital illustrations by Michelle MufozThe Holiday Joy stamps are being issued as Forever@ stamps. These Forever stamps wil always be equal in value to the curentFirst-Class Mail® one-ounce rate.
Stamp lssuance:
September 14,2024
Washington, DC 20066
Made in the USA

Evergreen trees and flowering plants have been a part of winter and seasonal festivities for thousands of years. Firs and other foliage that stayed green during those long, dark days provided hope and comfort to pagan celebrants by reminding them that summer and sunlight would eventually return. Over time, Christians made the tradition of using greenery at winter celebrations their own: the first recorded mention of decorated fir trees came from early 17th-century Germany.

Glass ornaments appeared in Germany in the mid-1800s, spreading to the United States and many other countries by the end of the 19th century. Mass produced, commercial tree decorations are ubiquitous today, but unique, hand-blown or handcrafted baubles are still produced by small companies in America and Europe.

Unlike holiday tree ornaments, the iconic poinsettia did not arrive in the United States by way of Europe. Native to Mexico, where it can grow 10 feet tall or more, the poinsettia is the one of the most popular potted plants in the United States today with more than 34 million poinsettias sold each year. It has been associated with Christmas here since the 19th century.

The U.S. Postal Service will host a special stamp dedication ceremony at the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum to unveil the highly anticipated 2024 Christmas Madonna and Child stamp and Holiday Joy stamps.