The U.S. Postal Service will officially unveil its new Christmas Cookies Forever stamps at a free, family-friendly event at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum in Washington next month, giving Southern Maryland residents an easy day-trip option to be among the first to buy the holiday stamps.
The event is scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 19, at the museum, located at 2 Massachusetts Ave. NE, a roughly 30- to 45-minute drive from much of Charles, Calvert and St. Mary’s counties depending on traffic. Retail sales and first-day-of-issue postmarks will be available on-site, and USPS is encouraging attendees to RSVP through its website. The stamp news is being shared under the hashtag #ChristmasCookiesStamps.
The Christmas Cookies Forever stamp booklet includes 20 stamps featuring four separate images of frosted sugar cookies — a Christmas tree, a stocking, a wrapped present and Santa’s face — arranged on alternating red and blue backgrounds. The stamps were created from photographs of cookies baked by designer Kyrie Johnson, with Greg Breeding, USPS art director and designer, and artist Sarah Cramer Shields also credited on the project.
USPS has issued Christmas-themed stamp designs every year since 1962, and cookies have appeared on the agency’s holiday stamps twice before, in 2005 and 2017. This year’s cookie design is part of a broader nine-stamp holiday lineup that also includes a traditional Madonna and Child Christmas stamp, along with new Diwali, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and Winter Wreath designs. The Madonna and Child stamp, issued Oct. 2, depicts “The Virgin and Child Enthroned,” a Netherlandish painting from around 1500 attributed only to an artist known as “The Master of the Embroidered Foliage.” This year’s Diwali stamp, the second the Postal Service has issued for the festival, features a rangoli, a traditional floor pattern typically made from colored rice powder or chalk, timed to the main day of the 2026 observance on Nov. 8.
The stamps arrive as the cost of mailing a letter continues to climb. USPS raised the price of a Forever stamp from 78 cents to 82 cents on July 12, the sixth such increase in five years and part of a broader effort by the financially struggling agency to close a widening gap between revenue and operating costs. Postmaster General David Steiner has told Congress he believes the price of a first-class stamp should eventually rise into the 90-to-95-cent range to stabilize the agency’s finances, suggesting more increases could follow. Because Forever stamps always cover the current price of a one-ounce, first-class letter regardless of when they were purchased, a booklet of Christmas Cookies stamps bought this fall will remain valid for mailing even if rates rise again before the holidays arrive.
The Smithsonian National Postal Museum, one of the Smithsonian Institution’s lesser-visited but free-to-enter museums, regularly hosts first-day-of-issue ceremonies for new stamp designs, drawing collectors and casual visitors alike. The museum’s location near Washington’s Union Station makes it accessible by Amtrak, MARC train or Metro for visitors coming from Southern Maryland who prefer not to drive into the city.
Beyond the Sept. 19 event, customers will be able to purchase the Christmas Cookies stamps and other new holiday designs through the Postal Store at usps.com/shopstamps, by phone, by mail through USA Philatelic, or at Post Office locations nationwide once the stamps go on general sale. Officially licensed stamp-themed products will also be available through USPS’s storefront on Amazon. Additional details on the stamps, related first-day-of-issue ceremonies for other 2026 holiday designs, and stamp-inspired merchandise are posted at stampsforever.com.
