The U.S. Postal Service will unveil its ninth Hanukkah stamp next month, continuing a tradition that dates back to 1996 of honoring the eight-day Jewish holiday observed by millions of people in the United States and around the world.
Postmaster General David Steiner will dedicate the new stamp at a free, public first-day-of-issue ceremony Tuesday, Sept. 29, at 11 a.m. Central at Touro Synagogue in New Orleans. Those interested in attending are encouraged to register at usps.com/Hanukkahstamp; USPS is promoting the release with the hashtag #HanukkahStamp.
The stamp features a digital illustration of a dark blue dreidel with rust-colored Hebrew letters set against a turquoise background, framed by flowers and foliage in shades of orange, cream, and blue. It was designed by USPS art director Antonio Alcalá, with original artwork by illustrator Lisa Perrin, whose design draws on both her own Jewish heritage and Eastern European folk-art traditions.
“I hope that people who celebrate Hanukkah will be excited to see a new and colorful stamp for the occasion,” Perrin said in USPS materials. “The dreidel is used as part of a game and has a playful connotation — I hope it makes people smile!”
USPS first issued a Hanukkah stamp in 1996, reusing the same design for several years before introducing new artwork. Since 2016, the agency has released a freshly designed Hanukkah stamp roughly every two years, with most editions created by a different artist — many of them Jewish.
This year’s Hanukkah begins at sundown Friday, Dec. 4, marking the 25th day of Kislev on the Hebrew calendar. Traditional observances include singing holiday songs and eating fried foods like latkes and sufganiyot, commemorating the miracle of the oil at the center of the holiday’s origin story.
The Hanukkah stamp is being issued as a Forever stamp in panes of 20, meaning it will always be valid for the current First-Class Mail 1-ounce rate regardless of future postage increases. It’s part of a broader slate of 2026 USPS holiday stamps that also includes new Diwali, Kwanzaa, and Christmas-themed designs. Stamps and other philatelic products can be purchased through USPS’s Postal Store at usps.com/shopstamps, by phone, by mail, or at Post Office locations nationwide.
