I know it’s just an artistic design on a stamp from 1973, right, but if your tree ornaments were at this scale … well, that’s a nicely huge gingerbread cookie for munching. You can have those 18-inch candy canes.
The needlepoint (who still does that?) is a traditional touch for what was promoted as a “contemporary” stamp. This continued a practice begun a few years before of offering a religious holiday image along with a non-religious.
Left, the USPS stayed with the Italians: Raphael’s image of Madonna and Child for the other Christmas option that year. Check the crisp image here from the National Gallery of Art. Maybe a needlepoint Madonna as an alternative?
It was the good ol’ days of the 70s–the last year of the single digit price tag on a first class piece of mail. These stamps were issued in early November–well in advance of all the holidays of the season. Rather prepared and efficient, all things considered.
Catholic Sensibility 