About This Stamp
Celebrate the holidays with four stamps from the U.S. Postal Service. Inspired by folk art but with a modern graphic vibe, these charming stamps will add a touch of whimsy to your holiday mailings.
With a traditional palette of red, green, and white, illustrator Kirsten Ulve channeled her love of Christmas, vintage ornaments, and Scandinavian folk art to create unique digital illustrations of four holiday icons: a prancing reindeer with antlers; an ornament tied with a bow and ready to hang; a tree topped with a star; and a stocking holding a teddy bear and a sprig of holly.
The first recorded mention of decorated fir trees comes from early 17th-century Germany; the writer describes trees, brought indoors during the Christmas season and adorned with apples, gold foil, and other embellishments. German immigrants brought their Christmas customs with them to America. In the 1800s, American magazines began publishing images of decorated trees, and trimming the tree became a popular and fashionable tradition in homes across the country.
In the 19th century, Americans embellished their holiday trees with paper ornaments, sweets, candles, popcorn, and other homemade items. Beginning in the 1890s, Woolworth’s five-and-dime chain and, later, other department stores, imported blown-glass ornaments from Germany. By the mid-20th century, hundreds of thousands of Christmas ornaments mass-produced in Japan and other countries were imported and sold in the U.S. In addition to the more modern, commercial tree decorations available today, unique, hand-blown or handcrafted baubles continue to be produced by small companies in America and Europe.
The origin of the custom of hanging stockings on the mantel is lost in myth. An old story involves St. Nicholas, one of the inspirations for our modern-day Santa Claus. According to legend, Nicholas came to a small village where he heard of an impoverished widower who could not afford to provide a dowry so that his three daughters could marry. The man was too proud to accept charity, so St. Nick dropped some gold coins down the chimney, which landed in the girls’ stockings that were hung by the fireplace to dry. Today, even those without a fireplace mantel hang their stockings to be filled with small toys and gifts, fruit, and nuts.
Santa’s eight flying reindeer, who are said to pull his sleigh on Christmas Eve, were first mentioned in an 1823 poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas.” Before that, descriptions of Santa had him travel on everything from a wagon pulled by a flying goat to a sled with a lone reindeer. Although there is no certainty about how reindeer originally came to be associated so closely with Christmas, it could be that their natural habitat — the northernmost areas of Europe, Siberia, and North America — fits perfectly with the story of Santa’s workshop hidden away at the North Pole.
Art director Antonio Alcalá designed the stamps.
The Holiday Delights stamps are being 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, Stamp Designer
Antonio Alcalá
Antonio Alcalá served on the Postmaster General’s Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee from 2010 until 2011, when he left to become an art director for the U.S. Postal Service's stamp development program.
He is founder and co-owner of Studio A, a design practice working with museums and arts institutions. His clients include: the National Gallery of Art, Library of Congress, National Portrait Gallery, National Museum of Women in the Arts, The Phillips Collection, and Smithsonian Institution. He also lectures at colleges including the Corcoran College of Art + Design, SVA, Pratt, and MICA.
In 2008, his work and contributions to the field of graphic design were recognized with his selection as an AIGA Fellow. He has judged international competitions for the Society of Illustrators, American Illustration, AIGA, and Graphis. Alcalá also serves on the Smithsonian National Postal Museum and Poster House Museum’s advisory councils. His designs are represented in the AIGA Design Archives, the National Postal Museum, and the Library of Congress Permanent Collection of Graphic Design.
Alcalá graduated from Yale University with a BA in history and from the Yale School of Art with an MFA in graphic design. He lives with his wife in Alexandria, Virginia.
Stamp Artist
Kirsten Ulve
Now based in New York City, Kirsten Ulve grew up in Dubuque, Iowa. She earned a B.F.A. in drawing at the University of Iowa, where she also worked in the school’s design studio. After freelancing in Chicago for a few years, she moved to New York to continue her career as a graphic designer and illustrator.
Best known for her celebrity caricatures and fashion illustration, Ulve blends clean design, bold color, and a sense of fun in her work. Other expertise includes conceptual illustration, toy and game design, character development, and animation styling. Her illustrations have appeared on magazine covers, in international ad campaigns, on Broadway marquees, in animated cartoons and tv commercials, and on children's clothing.
Among her multitude of clients are The New York Times, the New Yorker, the Guggenheim Museum, Vogue Japan, Time Warner, Target, Godiva, Billboard, and the American Heart Association.
Ulve lives in Manhattan with her husband and two black cats, Romulus and Remus.
The stamp art for Holiday Delights (2020) is Ulve’s first project for the U.S. Postal Service.