Three U.S. holiday stamps rescheduled

By Michael Baadke

The United States Postal Service has just rescheduled issue dates for three holiday stamps that were all previously announced to go on sale within the next three weeks.

The Hanukkah forever stamp, which the Postal Service previously announced it would issue Oct. 6 in New York City, is now scheduled for release on Nov. 1 in Boca Raton, Fla. The 11 a.m. ceremony will take place at Temple Beth El of Boca Raton, at 33 SW Fourth Ave.

The Nativity forever stamp, which also was planned for Oct. 6 in New York City, has been rescheduled for Nov. 3 in Washington, D.C. That ceremony will be held at 12:15 p.m. at  St. John’s Church, Lafayette Square, 1525 H Street NW, across from the White House.

And the Florentine Madonna and Child forever stamp, once scheduled for release Oct. 11 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., is now going to be issued a week later, on Oct. 18, with a noon ceremony at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum — not the art gallery, but still in Washington.

That last change might be the most surprising. The Oct. 11 date for the Madonna and Child stamp had already been published in the Sept. 15 USPS Postal Bulletin, which provides Postal Service employees with stamp release information and all forms of corporate news and regulation updates.

According to information released by the Postal Service on Sept. 22, all three first-day ceremonies will be open to the public.