About This Stamp
Welcome the holidays with four stamps from the U.S. Postal Service®. Displayed on a door, in a window, or over a mantel, wreaths are symbols of joy and celebration, inviting the spirit of the season to enter the home.
Inspired by the holiday decorating traditions of early America, particularly Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia, the four wreaths featured on these stamps are classic yet contemporary, their designs creating feelings of warmth and welcome. Many of them are made from materials easily found during the winter months, including pinecones, dried flowers, and berries.
The woodland bush ivy and red winterberry wreath presents a classic red and green palette.
Red and gold ribbon bedecks the wreath made from gilded dried hydrangea, eucalyptus and nandina foliage, red berries, and small ornaments.
Gilded pinecones and magnolia pods grace the wreath trimmed with cranberry red ribbon.
The ribbon leaf wreath is inspired by French floral art. The aspidistra leaves, folded and manipulated to resemble ribbons, create a long-lasting wreath.
Add these elegant stamps to your cards and letters to share holiday greetings with family and friends.
Antonio Alcalá served as the art director of the project and designed the stamps with floral artist Laura Dowling. Dowling designed the wreaths for the stamps, which were photographed by Kevin Allen.
The Holidays Wreaths stamps were issued in booklets of 20 First-Class™ Forever® stamps. These Forever stamps will always be equal in value to the current First-Class Mail® one-ounce price.
Stamp Art Director, Designer, and Typographer
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.
Designer and Floral Artist
Laura Dowling
A native of Chehalis, Washington, Laura Dowling studied at Centralia College and the University of Washington in Seattle, where she received a master’s degree in public administration.
After working in strategic communications for several years, Dowling was inspired to change careers by a trip to Paris. She studied floral art in Paris and Germany, and established a design studio in her home near Washington, D.C. In 2009, Dowling won a widely publicized, nationwide competition held to replace the departing chief floral designer at the White House; she served in that post until 2015.
While at the White House Dowling practiced the art of floral diplomacy, honoring visiting dignitaries and conveying diplomatic and cultural messages through the flowers and colors she chose for the arrangements. After leaving the White House, she published her first book, Floral Diplomacy at the White House (2017), which described this approach to her work. The author of three other books — A White House Christmas (2017), Wreaths (2018), and Bouquets (October, 2019) — Dowling travels the world presenting design workshops and organizing floral installations and special events.
Known for her contemporary and romantic style of flower arrangement, Dowling combines flowers, branches, berried twigs, and leafy vines with more formally designed bouquets, to create seasonal designs that are sophisticated and classic. Honored with the Great American Gardeners Award for achievements in floristry (2012) by the American Horticultural Society, Dowling was also named Distinguished Flower Ambassador (2016) by the Royal Horticultural Society of Belgium.
Dowling lives in Alexandria, Virginia. Holiday Wreaths was her first project for the U.S. Postal Service®.