About This Stamp
Beloved by children and adults alike, snow globes can be miniature works of art, wacky souvenirs, or anything in between. Celebrating the spirit of the holidays, the U.S. Postal Service captures the playful pleasure of Christmas snow globes on four stamps.
Painting in oil, the artist created the designs featuring icons of the season, each spherical snow globe sitting on a brown base: a snowman wearing a jaunty red-and-white scarf; Santa Claus on a rooftop preparing to climb down the chimney; a reindeer standing in a snowy forest; and a snowy tree decorated with colorful ornaments.
The first published reference to snow globes was in a report of the 1878 Paris Exposition Universelle, where several manufacturers exhibited “snowstorm paperweights” as they were called at the time. Beginning around 1900, snow globes began appearing as souvenirs at tourist sites around Europe; the Austrian company that helped originally popularize the glass wonders is still manufacturing them today. They have been called by many names over the decades, including snow dome, water globe, and snowfall weight, but the most popularly used name today is snow globe.
Snow globes share common features. A container, made of glass, plastic, or other clear material, is filled with liquid that covers a central figure or scene; when shaken, the flitter, the technical term for the “snow,” creates a storm that briefly obscures the inside of the container. Over the years, many different materials have been used to create the snowfall effect, including crushed sand dollars and ground rice. Today, the snow is likely to be made of tiny plastic pieces, and it might come in various shapes: hearts, stars, even tiny dollar bills! The density of the liquid determines how fast the snow falls.
From a tiny Eiffel Tower first featured in a 19th-century snow globe to contemporary scenes celebrating astronauts and rocket ships, there is an almost unlimited range of themes that can be encapsulated inside. The figurines or scenes are created from metals, wax, photographs, plastic, and other materials that will not dissolve in the liquid. Originally, snow globes were small, fitting easily in the palm of the hand. Over the years, sizes have increased to include giant outdoor, electric snow globes.
Holiday snow globes, vintage and modern, are favorites among collectors. The figures or panels inside might be anything related to Christmas: Santa Claus, reindeer, elves, popular holiday movie characters, a family gathered around a Christmas tree, or a tiny forest of firs waiting for a snowfall. With one shake, the snowy interior becomes a miniature holiday celebration.
Art director Derry Noyes designed the stamps with original art by Gregory Manchess.
The Snow Globes stamps are being issued in booklets of 20 Forever® stamps. These Forever stamps will always be equal in value to the current First-Class Mail® one-ounce price.
Stamp Art Director
Derry Noyes
For more than 40 years Derry Noyes has designed and provided art direction for close to 800 United States postage stamps and stamp products. She holds a bachelor of arts degree from Hampshire College and a master of fine arts degree from Yale University.
Noyes worked as a graphics designer at Beveridge and Associates, a Washington, D.C., firm, until 1979 when she established her own design firm, Derry Noyes Graphics. Her clients have included museums, corporations, foundations, and architectural and educational institutions. Her work has been honored by American Illustration, the Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington, Communication Arts, Critique magazine, Graphis, Creativity International, and the Society of Illustrators.
Before becoming an art director for the U.S. Postal Service, she served as a member of the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee from 1981 to 1983.
Noyes is a resident of Washington, D.C.
Stamp Artist
Gregory Manchess
Painter Gregory Manchess has worked as a freelance illustrator for nearly forty years on advertising campaigns, magazines, and book covers. His work has appeared on covers and in feature stories for National Geographic magazine, TIME, The Atlantic Monthly, and Smithsonian Magazine.
Noting his passion for history, the National Geographic Society sent Manchess on an expedition to record the exploits of explorer, David Thomson. The Society also chose his work to illustrate the traveling exhibition, Real Pirates: The Untold Story of The Whydah, from Slave Ship to Pirate Ship. His large portrait of Abraham Lincoln and seven other paintings of moments from Lincoln’s life are exhibited at the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois.
The artist has illustrated children’s books, including Nanuk: Lord of the Ice and Cheyenne Medicine Hat, written by Brian Heinz, and To Capture the Wind by author Sheila MacGill-Callahan.
Manchess is included in Walt Reed’s edition of The Illustrator in America, 1860-2000. Widely awarded within the industry, he exhibits frequently at the Society of Illustrators in New York. The Society presented him with its highest honor, the coveted Hamilton King Award.
Today, Manchess divides his time between New York and Kentucky, his native state. He lectures frequently at universities and colleges nationwide, gives painting workshops at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA, and teaches at the Illustration Master Class in Amherst, MA.
His figure and portrait work has led to numerous commissions for stamps by the U.S. Postal Service, including Oregon Statehood (2009), Mark Twain (2011), The 1963 March On Washington (2013), five paintings for Enjoy the Great Outdoors (2020), and ten for Snowy Beauty (2022).