About This Stamp
Celebrate the holidays with Poinsettia, a Global Forever® stamp from the U.S. Postal Service®. This Global Forever stamp can be used to mail a one-ounce letter to any country to which First-Class Mail International® service is available. As with all Global Forever stamps, this stamp will have a postage value equivalent to the price of the single-piece First-Class Mail International first-ounce machinable letter in effect at the time of use. The stamp art features a photo of a poinsettia. Taken from above, the photo captures the beauty of the green leaves, the red bracts, and the yellow flowers in the center of the plant. The poinsettia — Euphorbia pulcherrima — is a small tropical tree that can reach heights of more than 10 feet in the wild in its native Mexico. We tend to think of the beautifully colored “petals” as the flowers, but in fact, those are the modified leaves called bracts. The poinsettia flower is the cluster of small, yellow, cup-shaped structures in the center of the leaves. Revered by the Aztec, the poinsettia was considered a symbol of purity. They used the bracts to make dye and cosmetics and created medicine for fever from the plant’s sap. During the 17th century, European priests observed that the plant bloomed during the winter months and incorporated it into festivals to celebrate the Nativity. The plant was named in honor of Dr. Joel Roberts Poinsett, the first American ambassador to Mexico, who sent cuttings of the exotic plant back to the U.S. in the early years of the 19th century. National Poinsettia Day is observed on December 12, the day that Dr. Poinsett died. Introduced to the American gardening public in 1829 at the first exhibition of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society — now known as the Philadelphia Flower Show — the vivid red plant soon became associated with the holidays in the United States. Growers in California are credited with the 20th-century explosion in popularity and availability of the poinsettia, which continues today. The poinsettia has more than 100 varieties, though red is still America’s favorite. Modern plants are bred in many other hues including pink, apricot, yellow, cream, and white. In addition, there are unusual varieties that blend several colors in speckled or marbled patterns. Poinsettias are now as much a part of the holidays as evergreens and mistletoe; tens of millions of plants are sold during the season. The art director was William J. Gicker. Greg Breeding designed the stamp with an existing photograph by Betsy Pettet. The Global Forever stamps are being issued in self-adhesive panes of 10.
Stamp Art Director
William Gicker
William Gicker served as Director of Stamp Services for the U.S. Postal Service from 2020 until his retirement in 2023. In that position he oversaw stamp development, stamp products and exhibitions, stamp manufacturing, stamp fulfillment, and the Postmaster General’s Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee (CSAC).
Gicker began working for the U.S. Postal Service in 1998. Initially assistant editor of USA Philatelic, the quarterly stamp catalog produced by Stamp Services, he soon became editor where he oversaw the catalog’s award-winning program until 2013.
Named creative director of stamps in 2001, Gicker became manager and creative director of Stamp Development in 2015. Working closely with Postal Service art directors and CSAC, he managed the creative development and quality control of more than 800 stamp issuances and 1,700 individual stamp designs.
He has served as art director for some of the most popular stamps issued by the Postal Service: the five-year Art of Disney series; Star Wars; Holy Family; Harry Potter; and Hot Wheels. As both art director and designer, Gicker lists among his many stamps, Holiday Baubles; the first international rate Global stamp in 2013; and the Gifts of Friendship joint issuance with Japan. He was also art director for the first stamp to celebrate Diwali, eight more Global Forever® stamps, and several Christmas Madonna and Child issuances, the most recent in 2024.
A native of Pennsylvania, Gicker graduated from West Chester University with a bachelor of arts degree in English Literature. He and his family live in Washington, DC.
Stamp Designer
Greg Breeding
Greg Breeding is a graphic designer and principal of Journey Group, a design company he co-founded in 1992, located in Charlottesville, Virginia. He was creative director until 2013, at which time he began serving as president and continued in that role through 2023.
Breeding’s fascination with modernism began while studying design at Virginia Commonwealth University. His affinity with the movement continues and motivates his ongoing advanced studies at the Basel School of Design in Switzerland most every summer.
As an art director for postage stamp design since 2012, Breeding has designed more than 100 stamps covering a diverse array of subjects, from Star Wars droids and Batman to Harlem Renaissance writers and the transcontinental railroad.
His work has been recognized in annual design competitions held by Graphis, AIGA, PRINT magazine, and Communication Arts.
Breeding lives in North Garden, Virginia, with his wife and enjoys nothing so much as frolicking on the floor with his grandchildren.