The Postal Service issued both a traditional and contemporary Christmas stamp in celebration of the holiday season.
The traditional stamp, a 37-cent Madonna and Child, was issued on October 10, 2002, in Chicago, Illinois. The stamp is a detail of Jan Gossaert's oil-on-panel painting of the Madonna and Child, circa 1520, from the Charles H. and Mary F.S. Worcester Collection at The Art Institute of Chicago. Based on the artwork, Richard Sheaff of Scottsdale, Arizona, designed the stamp. The stamp was issued in a pressure-sensitive adhesive convertible booklet of twenty stamps. 739.2 million stamps were printed by the Banknote Corporation of America, Inc. in the offset/Microprinting process.
The contemporary stamps, a set of four 37-cent Snowmen stamps, were issued on October 28, 2002, in Houghton, Michigan. The stamps were designed by Derry Noyes, Washington, DC, and photographed by Sally Andersen-Bruce, New Milford, Connecticut. The stamps feature photographs of four whimsical snowmen figurines. Popular in folklore, literature, and song, snowmen have come to symbolize the joy and magic of the holiday season and often evoke fond childhood memories of playing in the snow.
The stamps were issued in a pressure-sensitive adhesive pane of twenty (125 million stamps by Avery Dennison), a double-sided booklet of twenty (1,705.2 billion stamps by Sennett Security Products), a folded vending booklet of twenty (4,049,500 stamps by Avery Dennison) and a linerless coil of 100 (300 million stamps by Builford Gravure, Inc.). All the stamps were printed in the gravure process.
