USPS announces new stamps for holiday season, humanitarian Elie Wiesel

By Charles Snee

On June 26 the United States Postal Service announced two additions to its 2025 stamp program.

A set of four nondenominated (78¢) Holiday Cheer definitive (regular-issue) stamps picturing three amaryllis flowers, a holly wreath, an evergreen branch decorated with fruit, and cardinals perched on mistletoe are set to usher in the holiday mailing season on Sept. 13 in Washington, D.C.

“The images were created using a collage technique with gouache and acrylic paint on background paper from a vintage gardening book,” the Postal Service said. “The shapes for each image were then cut out and pasted onto an archival cotton board. Derry Noyes, an art director for USPS, designed the stamps with original artwork by Denise Fiedler.”

Four days later, on Sept. 17, the USPS will issue a nondenominated ($1.07) 2-ounce-rate stamp in honor of humanitarian Elie Wiesel (1928-2016).

The stamp, which will be issued in New York City, is the 18th issue in the Postal Service’s Distinguished Americans series that began in 2000 with a 10¢ stamp picturing U.S. Army Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell (Scott 3420).

Wiesel is a “survivor of Nazi concentration camps whose dozens of works bore witness to the Holocaust and whose resilience and compassion continue to be a source of inspiration,” the Postal Service said in the June 26 press release.

USPS art director Ethel Kessler designed the stamp using a black-and-white photograph of Wiesel taken in 1999 by Sergey Bermeniev.

The USPS also revealed issue dates and first-day locations for 2025 stamps that have been previously announced.

The four stamps celebrating cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants are set to debut Aug. 1 in New York City.

A stamp for William F. Buckley Jr., founder of the conservative magazine National Review, will be issued Sept. 9 in New Haven, Conn., home to Yale University, Buckley’s alma mater.

On Sept. 19, the five Winter Landscapes stamps will debut in Danville, Ind.

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