Tuesday, December 06, 2011

Signs of the times? Gag me.

Today I stopped at the local post office to buy stamps -- Christmas stamps to mail Christmas cards to friends and relatives.

At the window, the lady presented the selection of Christmas stamps they had available. These included stamps with images of 1) abstract Christmas tree ornaments, 2) Kwanzaa, 3) Hanukkah, and 4) the Muslim holiday, Eid ul-Fitr, in ornamental Arabic.

I asked the lady what happened to the stamps of the Madonna and Child. She said she didn't know. She asked some of the other postal workers, but none knew anything about them.

I persisted: "Let me see, you're saying that these are your only selection of CHRISTMAS stamps?" She nodded. "... and this one is Christmas tree ornaments, that one commemorates an African-American celebration of dubious origin, this one a Jewish holiday, and the last one a Muslim holiday?"

She shrugged, and I walked away with stamps picturing the abstract Christmas tree ornaments.

Gag me.

3 comments:

Robin said...

You can order the 2011 Madonna and Child stamp at the USPS website. They do have one - maybe your local post office didn't order any. (I just ordered 100 after reading this post - thanks!)

Anonymous said...

There is the Madonna of the Candelabra Christmas Stamp for 2011:

http://christmaspostage.us/usps

Pertinacious Papist said...

Thanks for the tip!