It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like
CHRISTMAS
Christmas Issues from Around the World
(Click on Selected Stamps for a Hi-Res View) |
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New Zealand was one of the first countries to issue its 1997 Christmas stamps, with this pair on September 3. It commemorates one of the first
Christmas services in New Zealand, in 1814, and the carol composed to mark
that service, Te Harinui, which tells the story of that historic service.
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The second stamp in the annual US Holiday Celebrations series was Kwanzaa, the African American festival of family, community and culture. The series
began in 1996 with Hanukkah. |
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When you think Renaissance paintings -- many of which were of religious subjects -- you think Italy, which issued these two Christmas stamps this year. |
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France's Christmas stamp has a Nativity scene titled "St. Pierre Christmas." |
The Marshall Islands issued two Christmas stamps this year featuring angels from Raphael's Sistine Madonna (1513). Both designs are found in a unique sheet of 16 stamps, each featuring four stamp-size labels showing "progressive proofs" of one of the two stamps. The labels do not carry a
denomination and are not valid for postage. |