Forever Means Forever!

The winter holidays are just around the corner, and there’s no better time to stock up on your favorite Forever® stamps!

Forever stamps are always purchased at the current First-Class™ one-ounce letter rate. As the name suggests, Forever stamps can be used to mail a one-ounce letter regardless of when the stamps are purchased or used, and no matter how prices may change in the future. You can also use Forever stamps for international mail as long as you affix the required amount of additional postage.

Forever stamps are available for purchase at Post Offices and ATMs nationwide, online from The Postal Store^®, by phone at 1-800-STAMP-24 (1-800-782-6724), and via the USA Philatelic catalog.

Don’t forget, Forever means forever!

Special Bethlehem Postmark Now Available

To mark the start of the holiday season, the Post Office in Bethlehem, Kentucky, is once again offering a special postmark, available for 45 days beginning Nov. 16. To obtain the postmark, place stamped, addressed envelopes inside a larger envelope and mail them to:

LIVING NATIVITY STATION
PO Box 9998
Bethlehem KY 40007-9998

The Bethlehem Post Office has been offering a special cancellation during the holidays since 1947. “The pictorial postmark stamped alongside the Holy Family Forever stamp will be a great addition to 2012 greeting cards,” says Postmaster Susan Leopold. “We are proud that both the stamp and postmark will decorate thousands of cards during the holiday season.”

USPS expects to deliver approximately 17 billion cards and packages between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The Bethlehem Post Office expects to postmark around 50,000 cards with the town name.

Evergreens Notecards Suitable Forever: Enter to Win

Decorating with evergreens during the winter holiday season is a popular and appealing tradition. Perfect for this festive time of year or year-round, the Evergreens Forever® notecards are an easy, attractive, and ever-appropriate way to share the tradition with friends and loved ones.

This handsome set features 8 beautiful notecards with four different designs. The cards, which are blank inside, come with 8 envelopes that have been custom-designed to complement the stamps. Also included are 8 Evergreens Forever® stamps. Forever stamps can be used to mail a one-ounce letter regardless of when the stamps are purchased or used, and no matter how prices may change in the future.

We are giving away one set of collectible Evergreens Forever® notecards to the person who can supply the correct scientific (i.e., Latin) name for each of the four trees featured on the cards. The four trees are:

• ponderosa pine
• eastern red cedar
• blue spruce
• balsam fir

The winner will be selected at random from all correct entries and notified via email. To enter, send your answers to uspsstamps [at] gmail [dot] com. The deadline for entries is 11:59 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 15th. Good luck!

 

50 Years of Christmas Stamps

Fifty years ago this month, the first American Christmas postage stamp was issued at a ceremony in the Golden Hilton Hotel in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. There was “more demand for this stamp than any other issued,” Postmaster General J. Edward Day said during the dedication celebration. “Requests have come to the department for a great many years.”

The four-cent stamp—which was designed by Jim Crawford—was printed in festive shades of green and red and features hallmarks of the holiday season: a wreath and two candles.

Anticipating huge demand, postal officials ordered that 350 million of the new Christmas stamps be printed. It was the largest number of special stamps printed up to that time . . . and it wasn’t nearly enough to satisfy the American public! The initial supply of stamps sold out quickly, and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing had to work around the clock to print more. By the end of 1962, one billion Christmas stamps had been printed and distributed.

Since then, more than 90 billion holiday stamps have been printed, and they remain extremely popular today, representing nearly 10 percent of all stamp sales. But the true value of each year’s holiday stamps is much less quantifiable. The release of these stamps signals the beginning of the holiday season. Beyond their beauty, they help put everyone in the holiday spirit.

Join us on Facebook every day between now and Christmas as we recount all 50 years of Christmas stamps. Tell us which ones are your favorites, share them with your friends, and participate in conversations with fellow stamps fans from across the U.S. and around the world. And, of course, check back here for contests, insight, and much more about our wonderful 50-year history of holiday stamps.