For Catholics, the Annunciation (right, painted by Jan Van Eyck, and in possession of the National Gallery of Art) is an Advent Fourth Sunday event. Or March 25th. Not Christmas as such. The US Post Office didn’t care in 1968.
They got some heat from Protestants and Jews for the Madonna and Child design of 1966-67. I suppose they figured the angel was holiday-generic. Like 1965. Not sure about the Protestants and their complaints; Mary is in the Gospels, after all.
We don’t know everything about the full painting, but what we do know is summarized here.
Obviously, you can’t put a full artistic masterpiece on a piece of paper barely taller than one inch. They excerpted the archangel, above left, for the seasonal postage stamp.
Me, I like Mary’s footstool at the bottom of the full painting. And the cool Advent blue robes.
Catholic Sensibility 