About This Stamp
Celebrate the season with four stamps inspired by some of America’s favorite holiday songs: “Jingle Bells,” “Deck the Halls,” “Silent Night,” and “Jolly Old Saint Nicholas.”
The artist chose images that illustrated a major theme of each of the four carols. A lamb reflects the gentle mood of “Silent Night.” Dressed in its finery, a sleigh horse represents the carol “Jingle Bells.” Inspired by the lyrics of “Jolly Old Saint Nicholas,” the stamp art imagines a child’s hopeful monologue with Santa. For “Deck the Halls,” Christmas lights and holiday cookies set the mood. The stamp art is designed so the stamps are as graphically pleasing in a group as they are individually. Familiar lyrics from each song highlight the individual stamps. The artist first sketched the artwork in pencil and then rendered it as a digital illustration.
Many carols have roots in the music of the 15th and 16th centuries. In the 19th century — sometimes referred to as the Second Golden Age of Christmas Carols — many cherished carols were collected, arranged, or published, while many new songs that are today’s classics were first written.
Composed in the mid-1880s by James Pierpoint, “Jingle Bells” is one of the most recognized and popular Christmas carols. It has the distinction of being the first song ever played in space. In December 1965, the crew of Gemini 6 reported to Mission Control the sighting of a mysterious flying object: a large vehicle pulled by eight smaller objects with the pilot wearing a red suit. Ground controllers then heard “Jingle Bells” played on a harmonica backed by the sound of miniature sleigh bells.
Although it is not certain who wrote the original lyrics for “Deck the Halls,” the Welsh tune was published in the late 18th century. The lyrics first appeared in America in the 1881 publication The Franklin Square Song Collection under the title “Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly.” Some sources claim an American origin for the familiar lyrics we sing today.
Possibly the most beloved Christmas carol of all time, “Silent Night” has been translated into dozens of languages. In 1816, Joseph Mohr, an Austrian priest, wrote a poem, which two years later church organist Franz Gruber put to music. Today, “Silent Night” is performed every year in a special late-afternoon service on December 24th at St. Nicholas Church. Traditionally, it is not performed anywhere in Austria before that five p.m. service.
The lyrics for “Jolly Old Saint Nicholas” were adapted from the poem “Lilly’s Secret” written by children’s author Emily Huntington Miller. The poem’s first known publication was in the December 1865 issue of The Little Corporal, a children’s magazine. The song was first published in the 1870s, but the tune’s composer is unknown.
The late Howard E. Paine was the art director. Artist Steve McCracken created original art for the project.
Christmas Carols stamps were issued as Forever® stamps in booklets of 20. These Forever stamps will always be equal in value to the current First-Class Mail® one-ounce price.
Stamp Art Director, Designer, and Typographer
Howard E. Paine
A member of the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee before being named an art director in 1981, Howard E. Paine supervised the design of more than 400 U.S. postage stamps. After three decades as an art director for the U.S. Postal Service, he retired in 2011.
For more than 30 years Paine was an art director for the National Geographic Society, where he redesigned National Geographic magazine, developed the children’s magazine, National Geographic World, and designed Explorers Hall. A popular lecturer, he has spoken at Yale University and New York University, among others, and presented programs for the National Park Service and the Smithsonian Institution. A judge for numerous art shows and design competitions, Paine also taught magazine design at The George Washington University.
Paine had been a stamp collector since childhood. In 2000, he designed the catalog for Pushing The Envelope: The Art of the Postage Stamp, an exhibit of original stamp art at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
Howard Paine died on September 13, 2014.
Stamp Artist
Steve McCracken
Steve McCracken is a freelance illustrator and designer with a studio in Winchester, Virginia. He is a former features artist for The Miami Herald, The Virginian-Pilot, and The Washington Post. McCracken has been awarded six gold medals by the Society of Newspaper Design, and his work is represented in the Society of Illustrators Annual.
Clients have included National Public Radio, U.S. News & World Report, Daedalus Books, National Geographic magazine, and a variety of trade magazines. He is also a graphics information consultant for The Manoff Group, which provides solutions to health and environmental problems worldwide.
His designs for the Postal Service™ include four stamps in the Circus issuance in 1993, the 2001 stamped envelope honoring community colleges, the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games stamp, and four stamps in the Christmas Carols issuance in 2017.